The Secret War of Innocence
by AlexCros23
Summary: *Revised* A new pilot helps out the original gundam pilots to defeat a group of enemies determined to take over the earth and the colonies. R&R would be nice, but not necessary.
1. Bitter Sweet

*Disclaimer* Gundam is copyrighted by Bandai Co. and what I use in here I don't legally own. It should not be used for profit and/or plots to take over the world.  
  
Chapter One- The Past: A bitter, sweet memory  
  
Date:  
  
01, 09, AC-194  
  
On the L1X-06881 Colony in the L1 Sector, the sun set for the sixteenth time that day and a glimmered of light reflects off of a shuttle that was headed toward the colony; it carried a shipment of mobile suit parts along with a prototype Leo on board. This shuttle also had Rio Cros, the head official of the Zucast mobile suit facility based on the L1X-06881 Colony, onboard, along with a crew of five on board including the pilot and co-pilot of the shuttle. Rio was a promising employee for the Earth Sphere Alliance, especially within OZ. He stood 5'8" and had friendly brown eyes, along with black hair and glasses that came to his nose. The man also wore his brown space suit to most places, except for work, home and leisure.  
  
Meanwhile in a house located on the southern end of the colony, a fourteen-year-old boy sat in an armchair and was bored out of his mind; he had brown hair, aqua blue eyes, slightly built up from exercise, a solid red shirt, and blue jeans on. The boy got up and walked through a small arched hallway. Once through the hallway, the boy walked into the kitchen and grabbed an apple from the basket next to the refrigerator; he shined up the apple and promptly began to eat it. The apple was delicious in his heart, and smiled every time he is about to bite it. A small buzzing sound caught the boy's attention and he headed back into the living room. The brown haired boy then walked over and answered the videophone.  
  
The boy saw his older brother, Rio, on the other side of the screen and a smile came over his face.  
  
"Rio, it's good seeing you again," the teenager was cheerful and took another bite out of the apple.  
  
"Its good to see you again, too. Alex,"  
  
"When will you get in?" Alex glanced at a nearby clock.  
  
"We are about ten kilometers from the colony and should get in at about ten o'clock."  
  
"I'll see you then..." An explosion in the background on Rio's side cut Alex short. He hesitated for a moment and tried to think of something to say, but the words "Rio, what was that?" came out of his mouth  
  
"Hold on I'll find out..." Rio left the screen.  
  
Alex barely heard some of the conversations that went over the next few minutes.  
  
"What's happening?"  
  
"Five OZ Leos are attacking us..."  
  
"OZ? ... But that can't be..."  
  
"They will let us live if we get out of the shuttle now..."  
  
"What?! You fools... Don't go out there..."  
  
"Do what you want, but we are out of here..."  
  
A few moments later, a light filled up the screen of the video camera and Rio reappeared on the screen soon afterwards. Rio had only one expression on his face, that of fear. He tried to keep it hidden, but wasn't very successful.  
  
"What's happening?" Alex was very concerned while being very confused.  
  
"I don't know why, but there are five OZ Leos just outside. But, that doesn't matter now though. I need you to get out here now," Rio commanded in a blur of words.  
  
"What are you talking about?" Alex was confused and dropped his apple onto the floor.  
  
"Please listen, I need you to the garage and push back the shovel in the closet," Rio acted very serious. "It should lead you to a hangar with a mobile suit inside. I have been working on that mobile suit for the past couple of years. Please go now!"  
  
Alex heeded his brother's words. He ran out of the house, and headed into the garage to the right of the house. He saw the shovel in the closet, and thought to himself "this better not be a prank." This couldn't be though, since he knew Rio wasn't one to joke around with a subject like this. Once he pushed the shovel, the door slammed shut and the floor descended, darkness was the only thing above Alex's head. The floor stopped after a few moments, and a new door opened up. This revealed a hallway with rails at the end. Alex walked down the hallway, he had no idea what to expect until he got to the rails and saw the mobile suit Rio had talked about.  
  
The mobile suit seemed to dwarf Alex, from the head to ground height of 16.2m. The black head had one camera lens along with a rounded top and two radio antennas sticking out of the head. The upper, tan torso area bulged out about five meters and curved down to where the cockpit is in the lower, blue torso area. The tan, lower legs of the mobile suit had bulkiness to them, but curved down and up toward the leg joint and feet. The feet were six meters long, with a narrow point at the end of the feet and made the feet look like triangular based pyramid with a working joint where the leg and feet met. The upper leg section consisted of black armor, which formed to the wiring underneath; the upper arm area was about the same way. The lower, blue arm sections had a bulky wrist area and narrowed toward the elbow joint, and the hand was a regular. The tan shoulders have jet vents that measured two meters in diameter, and the shoulders narrowed out to a point about halfway between the shoulder joint and elbow. Attached to the wall next to the mobile suit was a nine and a half meter long gundanium curved sabre, which had the width of about two and a half meters.  
  
A feeling of awe flooded Alex as he saw the mobile suit, but he didn't know why. He had never seen a mobile suit outside a blueprint, and thought that maybe the whole thing was a big prank for a moment.  
  
He breathed a sigh of grief, and anxiety, and headed toward the mobile suit, with wonder and confusion of how Rio kept it from him. "Maybe those Saturdays weren't spent on work after all... "  
  
Finally he reached the mobile suit, Alex realized he had no idea how to open the cockpit let alone pilot such a thing. He looked around and saw a control panel by the mobile suit. He promptly pushed the open button. The cockpit door opened and Alex rushed after he remembered that his brother needed him. He looked at the controls and didn't know what did what. Alex pushed a flashing red button and the cockpit closed. He pulled the lever on his right and the mobile suit crashed back into the colony wall. "Um… yeah, mustn't do that again."  
  
After another few moments, Alex got the hang of movements of the mobile suit and grabbed the sabre from the wall. He then proceeded out of the hangar and headed toward his brother's location.  
  
After ten minutes, Alex in his mobile suit saw a battle ahead and maximized his thrusters. He saw five Leos on the attack against another Leo, but didn't catch sight of the shuttle. The mobile suit then went through a debris field, and Alex put two and two together about the shuttle.  
  
"Rio, where did you go?!" Tears floated away from him. "Wait... I count six... but there was only... five..."  
  
The mobile suit went a little further, and then a communication link popped up in the cockpit.  
  
"Good to see you got it, Alex," Rio commented as he was being thrown about in the cockpit of the experimental Leo.  
  
"What do you mean, it?" Alex was again confused.  
  
"You got the mobile suit, Icedig. I know you can take them out..." Blood spat out of Rio's mouth.  
  
"Who are they?" Alex grew more and more concerned with each moment.  
  
"Its not OZ.... Don't be deceived by them..." Rio attempted to attack back but failed. "There is something else though…" The five Leos finally struck the fuel containers of the Leo and it exploded from cockpit to head.  
  
The five Leos put down their Leo rifles and began to relax.  
  
"I say our mission is complete," the leader said with calmness while he wiped sweat from his head.  
  
"Wait, there is mobile suit heading our way on radar sir."  
  
"Is it a Leo or Aires?" the leader had his Leo's camera lock onto the mobile suit.  
  
"No, its unidentified."  
  
"That can't be."  
  
Before another word could be spoken, Icedig reached the five Leos with the gundanium sabre wielded. It did an upper slice through one Leo, then a downward slice through a second. The two Leos exploded after each half separated into clean pieces.  
  
"You killed my brother!" Alex yelled and then gasped for air. His anger was gone beyond comparison with the death of his brother flooded his head.  
  
The three remaining Leos fired their Leo rifles at Icedig, but the bullets did nothing. Icedig slammed into one of the Leos while stabbed through the cockpit with the sabre. The two Leos began a retreat while they fired on Icedig, but Icedig threw the gundanium sabre at the Leo on its right; it impaled the Leo through the cockpit. He breathed in and out at feverous rate, and sweat poured down his back. After a few moments, Alex brought his breath back into order and saw the last Leo in focus. Alex, after he realized he needed more weapons, typed in a search for weapons and got only one other weapon, a beam saber stored in the side of Icedig's torso.  
  
"I'll never forgive you for what you have done," Alex said as Icedig ignited the beam saber and charged at the remaining Leo. "Never!"  
  
"It has to be him... no doubt about it..." the leader made a realization about his mission at the last second, but couldn't do anything about it.  
  
Icedig sliced through the lower torso area and backed off to see the Leo split into two while it exploded. Icedig retrieved its gundanium sabre from the Leo that got impaled. Icedig's camera focused on the sabre, and saw little damage aside from scorch marks. Alex had the camera look at the all of the debris around him and saw nothing but carnage in his mind.  
  
"Was this actually combat? How come... " Alex looked at his trembling hand and in a quiver came over his voice, "I feel better, yet I lost Rio... What have I become..."  
  
Alex looked at the debris of the last Leo in front of him, and laid his head in his hands. He began to cry, and as he did the tears floated in the low gravity.  
  
He looked back up at the colony and saw light that bounced off the colony. The debris became shadows in the light as they blurred from Alex's tears.  
  
"NO!"  
  
Date:  
  
10, 11, AC-197  
  
Location: L2Y-89432 Colony, Riggs Motel Room 141  
  
Alex woke up in a cold sweat and sat up on the bed; half of his bed covers lay on the ground next to him. He reached down and pulled them back over him. His eyes seemed to almost want to cry, but couldn't manage to do it.  
  
"I can't forget that day... the day my brother died..." Alex mumbled in a low mournful voice. "It haunts me even in my dreams."  
  
Alex then lied back down and closed his eyes. 


	2. Friendship and Enemies

*Disclaimer* Gundam is copyrighted by Bandai Co. and what I use in here I don't legally own. It should not be used for profit and/or to control the minds of mice.  
  
Chapter 2- Friendship and Enemies  
  
Alex looked up at the ceiling and had no care in the world. He saw a drop of water land his nose, but paid no attention to it. It was like nothing could reach him, since the dream from earlier. His right leg shook suddenly; this managed to stir him from his stare and Alex glanced over at his leg.   
  
"The call of nature… great…." He let out a big sigh.  
  
He dragged himself out of bed and walked over to the bathroom, the door slammed behind him. A few minutes later, Alex got out of the bathroom after he refreshed himself, and walked over to the dresser then proceeded to look for clean clothes. After the change of clothes, Alex looked out the window and saw the colony sky along with some children as they played nearby.  
  
"I wonder if I should work for the next month?" Alex thought. "I should have enough money to tide me over…." Alex paused in mid-thought. "I do wish I wasn't on my own. I miss you so much Rio." A tear rolled down his face.  
  
Alex saw the children run away as though in fright, but he couldn't quite tell why. A very loud sound erupted behind him, and he looked to see what it was. To his surprise, there was a Leo's arm in his bed with the ceiling collapsed below it.  
  
Alex looked at the rubble; "I hope the motel doesn't charge me for this."  
  
The brown haired boy climbed through the rubble and saw daylight along with the Leo's cockpit, which had a small layer of debris on it. Alex dashed up to the cockpit and forced open the door while he brushed off the debris. He saw the pilot near unconsciousness with a bloody wound in his side.  
  
"Who are you with and what happened?" Alex got into the cockpit.  
  
"I'm with the... Preventors..." The pilot spat up blood. "We were checking on illegal arms coming to this colony, when my group got nailed by a group of Virgos."  
  
"Virgos?" Alex thought. "Must be one of the new type of mobile suit developed during the Earth sphere and colony conflict."  
  
"They got my partner, and me..." the pilot spat up even more blood. "Some of us are still alive, but I'm not sure how many."  
  
"You're going to be ok, man." Alex saw the man's blank eyes. "Shit... I couldn't help him..." Alex closed the pilot's eyes shut and cried a little. He wiped the tears away.  
  
Alex Cros then realized that more people could die from this conflict, much like his brother. He made his way down the rubble and ran once he cleared the debris field.  
  
Meanwhile, two Leos fought for their very existence against a Virgo in the city nearby.  
  
"Johnson, we need to do a different strategy," the pilot commented as the Leos backed off and hid behind buildings.  
  
"Sir, what should we do?" Johnson asked.  
  
"I'm not sure, but at least we should fight," the pilot replied.  
  
The building behind Johnson's Leo exploded with a beam of energy shot out from it. The beam of energy tore apart the Leo, Johnson died immediately.  
  
"Johnson!" The Leo then came out of hiding and fired its rifle at the Virgo. The Virgo looked at the Leo and fired its beam cannon; the upper torso of the Leo got blown off. The Leo then collapsed onto the ground, and the Virgo walked up to the Leo prepared for another shot. A yellow glow came from the beam cannon as the energy built up. Suddenly, a flash of light passed by the Virgo and, after a second of stillness, the Virgo fell into two pieces, which promptly exploded. The pilot of the Leo had fear and realization of life came over him while he waited for the Virgo to deal the deadly strike. He should have done better, if he had better, Johnson would still be alive. After some more time went by, the Leo pilot thought to himself that he should have already been killed, and decided to open the cockpit. He knew that he might stare down the barrel of a beam cannon, but figured that he would die either way. He opened the cockpit and took a look outside.  
  
"What happened..." the pilot was dumbfounded when he didn't see the Virgo. He then saw a beam scythe that glowed through the smoke, and the image of Deathscythe Hell appeared into his sight. "Well, what do you know? I got saved by a Gundam pilot, who would have thought."  
  
A voice spoke over the loud speakers of Deathscythe Hell, "Are you alright?"  
  
"Couldn't be better, thank you."  
  
"No problem," Duo closed the speakers, "for the God of Death."  
  
Deathscythe Hell moved out of the area in search of the other Virgos that had made trouble. It had been awhile since Duo was in Deathscythe Hell, since he blew it up on earth. A smile appeared on his face as he felt his old buddy still functioned as good as it did in the old days.   
  
"Those Preventors really know their stuff."  
  
In fact, Duo felt good from about that pilot he had saved from the Virgo doll, but decided to cut out the happiness to make sure his guard wasn't down.  
  
Deathscythe Hell then stopped in the downtown area of the city. Duo looked at his radar with some confusion. "That's funny, that radar signature doesn't belong to any known mobile suit. Must be a new model," Duo let out a big sigh. "Just my luck."  
  
Icedig turned around a corner and saw Deathscythe Hell in full view. Icedig and Deathscythe Hell stared at each other for a few moments.  
  
Alex recognized the suit in front of him, but couldn't think of where he had seen it. It then occurred to him that this might be one of the Gundams that he had heard about.  
  
A communication link popped up in his cockpit.  
  
Alex's eyes opened wide at the sight on his screen, but Duo didn't notice.  
  
"Identify yourself at once. Or prepare to die."  
  
"I think you shouldn't be worrying about who I am right now," Alex yelled at the top of his lungs.  
  
Icedig pulled out its gundanium sabre and flung it directly at Deathscythe Hell. Duo was taken by surprise on this pilot's action, but didn't hesitate. Before the sabre was even halfway to Deathscythe Hell, the gundam put its thrusters to max and flew towards Icedig with beam scythe in hand while it easily dodged the sabre.  
  
"Bad idea, buddy," Deathscythe Hell was about to deal a fatal swipe.  
  
"Before you decide to kill me, I would advise to look behind you," Alex yelled as fast as he could, but at the same time, as clearly as possible.  
  
Duo thought about the pilot's statement. "Who does this guy think he is? … Telling a gundam pilot what to do? Why should I?" Duo looked at Alex for a second. "He sounds sincere though…."  
  
Deathscythe Hell pulled out of its swing and turned its body to look behind itself. A Virgo lay on the ground after being impaled by the gundanium sabre thrown by the Icedig mobile suit.  
  
"Whoa..." Duo had some sweat roll down his face. "At that range, there would have been no defense against it. Who is this guy anyway?"  
  
**An hour later**  
  
Duo and Alex sat at a table at the Shell Ribbon Cafe', and they had talked for the past half hour.  
  
"So then I finished off the five Leos. That's pretty much my life up until now."  
  
"Now?" Duo had a pissed off look. "Wait a minute, this happened in 194?"  
  
"Yeah, why?"  
  
"Well, why didn't you help us during AC-195 and then again in AC-196?" Duo had an angry tone behind his words.  
  
"Oh yeah... well I'm not sure really..." Alex had some grief in his voice and Duo fell back in his chair.  
  
"Oh boy, and here I thought you were hiding from the world..."  
  
"I guess I was... You see OZ was never my enemy..." Alex hesitated on what he tried to say. "You see my brother used to work for a facility that was owned by them."  
  
"What?" Duo lifted an eyebrow.  
  
"Yeah, I knew it back then... though I hardly they would have thought that they would done that to a dedicated employee..." Alex stated. "Someone else killed him..."  
  
"Let me guess, your hiding from the guys who might have killed your brother. But, you killed the dudes. You don't need to worry about it."  
  
"I know... but who sent them." Alex was frustrated and sat further back in his chair; "I'm staying low until I find out."  
  
A man dressed in a trench coat and hat observed the two and almost fell out of his seat when he heard the last part of the conversation, and began to make little notes in his notepad. Alex and Duo didn't even notice him.  
  
"Alright, help the Preventors. That's your best option to finding out who did it."  
  
"The Preventors?" Alex scratched his head for a minute. "The group trying to diffuse fires by taking away the fuel?"  
  
"That's right…. The gundam pilots help them out from time to time."  
  
"Hmm… I'll think about..." Alex stopped in mid-sentence when a truck drove up and two men stepped out.  
  
"We are from the Preventors."  
  
"Who do you want to talk to?" Alex didn't know what to make of the men.  
  
"You, since Duo here is quite known to the Preventors." the man gave Alex a card.  
  
"What's this?" Alex looked at it weirdly.  
  
"Lady Une's personal business card," the man had a neutral look on his face. "She would like to speak to you."  
  
He got up as he stared at the card. The thought "Who is this Lady Une and why did she want to talk to me?" came to his mind. Alex looked at them oddly for a moment, but got into the truck.  
  
"Duo, Lady Une would like to see you, also."  
  
"Gotcha," Duo headed over and got into the truck. "What about Deathscythe Hell?"  
  
"We already have it moved, along with your new friend's mobile suit."  
  
The man got into the truck and it slowly pulled away from the cafe'. The man, who had observed the entire thing, pulled out a cell phone and pushed a single button.  
  
"Yes, this is Mota. You won't believe, who I found while on vacation... That's correct, I believe I have located test subject #235 after thirteen years of being missing... Affirmative, over and out."  
  
The man got up and slowly walked away. 


	3. Alex's Interrogation

*Disclaimer* Gundam is copyrighted by Bandai Co. and what I use in here I don't legally own. It should not be used for profit and/or to make green men come from outer space.  
  
Chapter 3- The Interrogation of Alex Cros  
  
Lady Une looked through a two-sided window and saw Alex as a military police officer interrogated him. She was anxious to get as much as possible from this new pilot, but didn't want it to cloud her judgment. She heard what had happened earlier that day and wasn't quite sure who the pilot really was or what to make of him. Une had set this interrogation up so that maybe she could get more out of this boy, but it had only confirmed what she had found out earlier.  
  
Duo walked into the room and got Lady Une's attention, while he did so Lady Une turned off the microphone to the other room.  
  
"Well, what's the verdict on this guy?" Duo got in a chair and stretched his arms out.  
  
"Him and his brother are registered in our databases. Rio Cros was an employee for OZ for about ten years at the time of his death. When we found out the shipment had not come into dock, some of ESA/OZ's men went to check out if anything foul had happened. They found what looked like battle remnants near the destination of the shuttle and most were mobile suits remains. No trace of any bodies," Lady Une walked over to Duo.  
  
"Where did you get this from?"  
  
"The file on the table next you," Lady Une pointed to the table to the right of Duo.  
  
In the background, the interrogation continued with Alex as he answered each of the officer's questions.  
  
"Hmm…. He did say he had fought five Leos. Is there anyway to find out where they came from."  
  
"In an unrelated incident, Lunar Base reported that five Leos were missing two days before Rio's shuttle left dock." Lady Une held the files of the report, "we didn't put two and two together until now. Sadly, the damage is already done."  
  
Alex and the officer looked at each other, then Alex started to flap his arms and the officer laughed at him, the officer then began flap his arms, too.  
  
"Is that all you wanted me to hear?"  
  
"No," Lady Une stated. "The problem with him is that neither him or his brother ever had birth certificates."  
  
"What do you mean by that?"  
  
"Simple, neither were registered legally. That and we have a birth certificate on a man called Hirofumi Jukodo. He has an incredible likeness to that of Rio, and he also was reported missing about thirteen years ago as well."  
  
Alex continued laughing at the officer as well as the officer, while they continued to talk.  
  
"Well, does Alex know this? I mean, he doesn't even know that he isn't legally alive?"  
  
"No, he doesn't."  
  
"Alright, I won't tell him," Duo leaned his head down.  
  
"We going to keep him overnight for further questioning in the morning," Lady Une looked through the glass again and saw the two in laughter. She turned on the microphone.  
  
"Then Billy Shell smashes it with his hand."  
  
"By far the best episode was when Simple Sam went to the amusement park, and destroyed the log ride by merely sneezing," Alex barely held onto his breath.  
  
The two of them continued to laugh unaware of Une's watchful eye. Lady Une took in the sight of the two and was irritated by the lack of discipline in both of them, especially the officer.  
  
"Ahem."  
  
The officer heard her and stood straight up. A nervous fear went through him as though he might have gotten court-martialed for this.  
  
"Escort this man to our guest corridors for the night," Lady Une didn't let her anger show.  
  
"Yes ma'am."  
  
The officer escorted Alex out of the room.  
  
"Well, don't mind me. I'm off to get some sleep." Duo got up and headed to the door.  
  
"Thank you Duo."  
  
Duo stopped in his tracks. "For what?"  
  
"You saved some of our men. That's all I have to say about the matter."  
  
Duo walked out of the room and Lady Une stood in the same spot. Her thoughts continued to go through her head about the new pilot, and what he did.  
  
"But, what is bothering me is that pilot knew exactly how Duo was going to dodge his sabre," Lady Une looked back toward the interrogation room. "There has to be something else to him, I know it."  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Alex and the officer finally arrived at the guest corridors; a door opened and Alex stepped in.  
  
"I can't believe no one else watched that show," Alex had a smile on his face  
  
"Your the first one I have met that has watched it. Anyway, good night."  
  
Alex walked over to the bed in the room, and sat down. He slowly stretched out and allows his head to rest on the pillow. His mind focused on how comfortable the pillow is. It had been awhile since a good homemade pillow was under his head. He could feel himself as he slipped away into his dreams.  
  
Suddenly, a red light flashed and alarm sounded in the room.  
  
Alex got up, "What's going on?" 


	4. Selfworth and recognition

*Disclaimer* Gundam is copyrighted by Bandai Co. and what I use in here I don't legally own. It should not be used for profit and/or make pots of gold appear.  
  
Chapter 4- Self-worth and recognition  
  
Alex slowly let his head rest on the pillow of the bed and saw himself in a crib. He looked around as he tried to figure where he was. "Where am I?" A man grabbed him out of the crib and threw him away. His fear drove him to try and grab the man but he was out of reach. Alex plummeted into the darkness and couldn't see any way to get out. Alex opened his eyes and saw an alarm as it sounded off.  
  
  
  
"What's going on?"   
  
He glanced down at his watch and realized he had been asleep for the past ten hours. "It has been ten hours? How could I have slept that much? What about that dream... On second thought, I probably shouldn't mention it." He got up while he composed himself and calmly walked to the door.  
  
"Hey guard. Anything the matter?"  
  
"I have no idea." A videophone sounded nearby, and the guard went over and picked it up. Alex only saw the figure in the video is Lady Une. The two of them had a relatively short conversation but it seemed to be urgent. The guard walked back to the door and opened it. "Lady Une wants to see you personally."  
  
"For what?" Alex was shocked by that he might have to talk to one of the head officials of the Preventors face to face.  
  
"We kind of have a crisis."  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Meanwhile, several platoons of Leos desperately fought off an offensive force of Taurus mobile suits. The Leos concentrated their fire on one of the Taurus and managed to take it down, yet the Taurus continued to take out Leo after Leo until only two platoons remained. In the main communications room, a screen showed the total damage taken and enemy strengths. Alex stumbled into the room as the guard escorted him.  
  
"Considering the current situation. We have to launch a counter-offensive against them. Wouldn't you agree?"  
  
"Against who?"  
  
"Them," Lady Une pointed to the screen when a Leo exploded. "We will be requiring your assistance for this counter-offensive."  
  
"Wait, I thought you people don't trust me," Alex stared at Lady Une like he might be thrown to the slaughter for no reason.  
  
"We don't, but we have no choice. Duo is the only one close enough to help, but he won't be able to make it until fifteen minutes from now. By then, our base will be leveled." Lady Une stated bluntly. "Along with you."  
  
Alex gulped. "Ok... I'll help, but I need my mobile suit to do it."  
  
"It is in the south docking bay."  
  
Alex began to leave for his mobile suit, but Lady Une interrupted him.  
  
"Remember, you're on a colony. One mistake could kill everyone." Alex nodded in agreement.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
The remaining Leos continued to fire on the Tauruses with no success, and finally one of the pilots saw one of the Taurus' eyes flicker. It only meant one thing.  
  
"Dang it, they are dolls. There must be a leader around here, then."  
  
A jet of gatling gun bullets flew past a Taurus and destroyed several of the Leos. A Serpent appeared behind the Taurus, and Mota was the pilot.  
  
"These guys are nothing, but wimps," Mota thought. He glided his right hand through his blonde hair. "Level the base."  
  
Icedig finally appeared from the south docking bay and joined up with some of the remaining Leos behind a hangar. Icedig crouched down while it leaned against the hangar.  
  
"Are you guys ok?" Alex kept an eye on his radar.  
  
"Could be better."  
  
"These Tauruses are dolls, and our radar has picked up what appears to be a Serpent on the battlefield, as well," another pilot stated as he tried to calm down from the shock received from his head being bashed around.  
  
"A Serpent?"  
  
"Yes, they first appeared during the incident of AC-196."  
  
"They know so much, yet I know so little," Alex thought.  
  
A Taurus flew over the hangar and fired several shots at the group. Icedig activated its shoulder thrusters and flew back to avoid the shots as though it was an instinct. When Icedig stopped in its tracks, Alex realized that he had left the Leos in the path of the shots and saw the remaining Leos explode along with the hanger.   
  
"They we men... Yet they die so easily..." Alex's mind thought back to the day Rio had died. "Everybody dies so easily... why does it have to be that way?... I don't understand...." Alex's thoughts began to turn to hate and his heart began to race. Alex's right arm quivered a little bit while he held the controls, "I'll make them pay!"  
  
Icedig ignited its beam saber and jetted toward the Taurus that destroyed the men. In a blink of an eye, Icedig sliced the Taurus in half and it exploded. Several more Taurus mobile suits attacked Icedig. Mota watched the fight from the safety of the Serpent.  
  
"That mobile suit, could it be?" Mota opened a communication link to some unknown figure. "I have something to report. Jukodo successfully made a degeneration of our best mobile suit design. I guess he wanted 235 to protect himself from... us. That's why my five men didn't come back. I'll keep relaying more info from my cameras." Mota closed the communication link. Mota knew that the game had just gotten more dangerous, though he didn't by how much.  
  
A Taurus fired randomly at Icedig, but Icedig used its shoulder thrusters and several other thrusters on its back and feet to dodge the beam of energy easily. Icedig then unignited its beam saber; didn't put it away, though, and pulled out its gundanium sabre. It sliced another Taurus in half with an upward attack. It continued its merciless attack and tore apart Taurus after Taurus. Icedig looked around for any other Taurus, but saw only the Serpent left. Alex's anger began to cool down but hadn't subsided.  
  
"Impressive, I never imagined that 235 could even take down that many Taurus with little or no training. Incredible he might even be better than his brother, 236." Mota thought. "I can't wait to see what he is like when he is at his best...." Mota had a smile appear at his next thought.   
  
"You killed so many, don't expect any mercy from me," Alex yelled after he had opened a communication link and closed it.  
  
Icedig descended rapidly toward the Serpent, and the Serpent fired its gatling guns toward Icedig. The hail of bullets tore through Icedig's armor, and Icedig crash landed face first into the ground. Icedig left a huge scar in the ground that became visible once the dust settled from the impact.  
  
"Dang, those bullets packed more of a punch than I thought..." Alex rubbed the back of his head and let out a big sigh. "I forgot this mobile suit doesn't have gundanium armor, but I still have to take him down."  
  
"Pathetic," Mota shook his head in disappointment.  
  
Icedig rolled to its left and stood up. It thrusted to the right, and dodged another hail of bullets from the Serpent. Icedig charged the Serpent with its gundanium sabre in the right hand and a beam saber in the other hand. The Serpent saw this in time, but was unable to prevent the gatling gun held on its left arm from being sliced in half by the gundanium sabre. Icedig moved too slowly at this point; the Serpent moved its right arm and pulled the trigger and blew away the right arm of Icedig. The left arm of Icedig reached around to the back of the Serpent and the gatling gun stopped its fury. The beam saber pierced through the armor of the Serpent easily, and cut most power off temporarily. Icedig unignited its beam saber. It let go of the Serpent and the Serpent collapsed to the ground. Alex looked at the Serpent through his screen and breathed a sigh of relief.  
  
"I have done my job. The base is safe now," Alex wiped the sweat from his forehead and realized that his breathing rate is quite hard. He did what Rio had told him to do in cases like this; he simply put his hand in front of him and concentrated on the hand alone. Alex had always wondered why this technique worked, but he did it anyway. His breath came back to a normal pace.  
  
Still in his cockpit, Mota looked at his dead screen, "I must admit that was nice, but why hasn't he finished me?"  
  
Icedig then backed off from the Serpent, and began to walk back to the base with its back turned to the Serpent. Alex knew that the Preventors would want to interrogate this man, and he had no problem with it. He had a smile as Icedig walked away.  
  
"I won't be left here like a beaten dog," the Serpent regained power. It got up and pointed its last gatling gun at Icedig. "If you really are 235, why do you have a heart? Jukodo must have made him soft. Oh well, if he won't show his true self, then he is expendable!"  
  
The Serpent began to warm up its gatling gun with each turn of the gun, and it got closer to open fire velocity. The glow of the primer explosion shined in the barrels of the gatling gun.  
  
"Die."  
  
The gatling begins to fire its bullets at Icedig. Just as the bullets begin to leave the barrels, the Serpent flies into two halves and explodes. Icedig turns around to saw a huge cloud of smoke coming from where the Serpent was. This sight shocks Alex, because he thought he had left the man to live not to die. A beam scythe appears through the smoke, and when the smoke clears Deathscythe Hell stands with its beam scythe in hand.  
  
"Yo Alex. You ought to be more careful." Duo said this in his normal carefree way.  
  
"I was careful," Alex snapped back.  
  
"Then why did you have your back to him?" Duo looked at Alex strangely and saw Alex was mad about something.  
  
"I thought it wasn't necessary to take his life," Alex leaned forward and let a big sigh.  
  
"Even though he could have wiped you out easily?"  
  
"Yes," Alex replied back after a few moments, once he had calmed down.  
  
Icedig continued toward the base with Deathscythe Hell shortly behind.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
In a dark conference room, a screen of the battle was shown through the eyes of the Serpent.  
  
"We believe that the pilot of this mobile suit," a man said as Icedig was shown bigger on the screen, "is our missing test subject 235. What is also apparent is that this mobile suit is a downgrade of the mobile suit we are currently working on."  
  
"What does that mean? Do you think that Jukodo would try to stop our plans by having our own people fight each other?" another man said.  
  
"It does appear to be that. But, we are so close to achieving our goal. We can't afford to have one man interfere with it."  
  
"So you think that we should ignore this threat or do you wish to bring it under control?" a third man commented.  
  
"235 was our highest scorer on the brain test and every other test except for physical strength. We can't afford to have to fight him."  
  
"I understand," the third man replied.  
  
"By what means though?" the second man commented.  
  
"Don't worry, I will take care of that," a fourth man stated.  
  
A door opposite of the first man opened with a teenager hidden in the light of the door. He was about 6'0" and wore a space suit. His brown hair glittered in the light, but his emerald eyes weren't apparent in the darkness. He walked in with curiosity and anticipation on his mind. "Is it... true? Have you found my brother?"  
  
"You mean have we located 235? Yes, we have 236 or should I say Niou."  
  
"I can't wait to see him," Niou said. "We have so much to catch up on. I wish Jukodo had never done what he did... breaking up our family."  
  
"If you don't mind Niou. Please let us be," one of the other men said.  
  
Niou walked out of the room and left the four men in there. The men seemed a little irritated at the disturbance, but brushed it off.  
  
"Its settled then?"  
  
"Affirmative," the other men said in unison.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Meanwhile, Alex and Duo watched as Icedig was held up for repair work. Alex was in awe of the machinery that the Preventors had, and the machinery that he helped save. This stuff must have cost a fortune, if he had to buy this stuff, and he wasn't about to argue. A worker came up to Alex and interrupted his wandering mind.  
  
"Mr. Cros, the right arm has been recovered, but it will take a few days to fix it. We haven't seen a mobile suit with this type of configuration before. I mean this design is far different than the Gundams or any regular mobile suit for that matter."  
  
"You can thank my brother for that. Anyway, there shouldn't be a problem with the repairs taking that long. Its not like I'm in a rush."  
  
"Fortunately for you, the Preventors are paying for this repair work," Duo whispered in Alex's right ear. "It would take major bucks to fix that thing otherwise."  
  
"Yep, a good deed gets a good ending," Alex smiled at the thought, but shuddered on the inside at the thought of the payments for the equipment. He then realizes something. "Hmm…. I have nothing to do for a few days. Is there anything I can do for the next couple of days around here?"  
  
"I have an idea," Duo had a big smirk on his face and proceeded to drag Alex away.  
  
"Where are we going...." 


	5. On the town

*Disclaimer* Gundam is copyrighted by Bandai Co. and what I use in here I don't legally own. It should not be used for profit and/or to make televisions implode.  
  
Chapter 5- On the town  
  
Alex and Duo arrived at a junkyard owned by Duo and Hilde. Alex looked at the sign that said "Danger: Sharp Objects" and took more of a look when inside the yard filled with scrap metal. The thought of that sign in a junkyard was pointless since people shouldn't be that stupid, but then again he remembered how foolish tended to be.  
  
"Wow... didn't know you were a junkyard dealer as well..."  
  
"Yes ever since I was in the war during AC-195." Duo faced the main building with his office inside. "Yo Hilde, I'm back."  
  
Hilde walked out of the main office of the junkyard.  
  
"Hey Duo," Hilde saw Alex. "Who is that with you?"  
  
"Oh him?" Duo pointed to Alex, who was by now had his eye on a television in a pile of junk. Alex was completely fascinated by the discovery, but didn't notice Hilde.  
  
"Awesome this is an original RCA TV from the year AC-100," Alex said aloud. A big smile came over his face. "There is hardly any of these in existence anymore."  
  
Duo who was the only one that heard him and held back his frustration, "His name… is Alex Cros."  
  
Upon the mention of the name, Hilde walked back inside the building and came back out with a box of parts. Hilde walked over to Duo and handed him the box of parts.  
  
"What are these for?" Duo's eyes cringed with the extra burden on him.  
  
"Their spare parts from mobile suits. You might be able to use them."  
  
"But I don't need this stuff," Duo thought that Hilde had gone mad.  
  
Hilde whispered and pointed toward Alex, "I heard about the incident earlier today, I thought Alex's mobile suit could use them. Aside from that, didn't he save you from having to make repairs of your own."  
  
"Yes, I guess." Duo let out a sigh and gave into her pressure.  
  
Alex saw another item in the pile, "wow!" Alex jumped over to another pile after he spotted another antique.  
  
"But, why give me this stuff?" Duo glared at her, " and not directly to him."  
  
"Simple, you're the one..." Hilde put her hand behind her head. "Well… I forgot my reason for giving it to you."  
  
"Oh brother." Duo put the box on the ground, "If you don't mind, we'll pick this up later."  
  
"Where you off to?" Hilde glanced down at the box and then looked back up at Duo.  
  
"Anywhere," Duo walked over to Alex and grabbed him by the arm.  
  
Alex looked at Duo, "What is it?"  
  
"We're going on the town."  
  
Duo walked off with Alex being dragged behind him.  
  
An hour later, Duo and Alex were in front of a cowboy style tavern.  
  
"Duo may I ask, why are we here?" Alex raised an eyebrow. He thought the entire idea of a cowboy tavern pretty ridiculous.  
  
"This place is good for a couple of laughs," Duo had a little smirk on his face.  
  
"That still doesn't answer my question," Alex looked at Duo seriously, but without a glare.  
  
Duo walked into the tavern, and Alex reluctantly followed as music blared around him. They proceeded up to the bar and sat down on barstools. Alex ordered Pepsi and Duo ordered water, so the bartender gave them a strange look. People who came here were supposed to drink alcohol; not "normal drinks" but it was an order. He quickly poured and served the orders. The two of them started to drink while they sat on bar stools. They faced the crowd and watched for a little bit. The crowd's dance patterns kind of puzzled Alex for a few minutes, but brushed it off. Alex looked at Duo and lowered his glass.  
  
"Duo."  
  
"Yes?"  
  
"In the AC-196 incident, weren't all of the gundams destroyed?" This had been on Alex's mind since he saw Deathscythe Hell for the first time in battle.  
  
"Correct," Duo drank some more water.  
  
"Then, how are you still piloting Deathscythe Hell?" Alex reached back and put his glass on the bar.  
  
"The Preventors rebuilt all five of the gundams and gave some modifications." Duo took another sip.  
  
"You mean the others have their gundams as well?" Alex eyes opened up a little with anxiety behind them.  
  
"Yep, they do. Wufei is the only one who works for the Preventors though. The rest of us, help out when necessary." Duo then remembered something that Lady Une mentioned right before he had docked earlier that day. "Oh yeah, Wufei and Quatre are coming in tomorrow to talk to you."  
  
"Why would they want to talk to me?" Alex froze a little. He had talked to a head officer of the Preventors, who used to be one of the top officials of the Organization of the Zodiac, but this was new. Gundam pilots were about to come to talk specifically to him. This feeling didn't go over in Alex's mind very well.  
  
"They both read the documentation Lady Une sent them, and are curious about you. Well… that is after Heero looked at them, he saw something wrong in the fact that you had average skill as a pilot, yet were able to destroy so many Taurus on your first try." Duo looked Alex straight in the eye, "So am I."  
  
"You're going to hold it against me?" Alex fell out of his seat.  
  
"No, I am the only one who saw you fight and know your personality… to a degree. I don't hold anything against people unless I have solid proof."   
  
"Well that's good to hear," Alex let out a sigh of relief and got back into his barstool.  
  
A guy in the crowd started to cause a disturbance in the tavern, and both Alex and Duo looked in that direction to see what was going on. The man yelled and knocked around a guy who was dating his ex-girlfriend. To Duo this was a normal disturbance, which didn't require any help from a gundam pilot.  
  
"We shouldn't get involved."  
  
Alex saw something different about the disturbance, but couldn't lay his finger on what it was exactly. Alex got up and started to walk toward the man.  
  
"Hey, Alex. What are you doing?" Duo shouted and stood up out of his seat.  
  
"Doing what I think I should do," Alex got to the man.  
  
The man had pushed around the boyfriend enough that the guy could barely have gotten up. Alex tapped on the man's shoulders and the man looked at him.  
  
"Stop this, there is no point to it."  
  
He laughed at the idea of a kid that tried to tell him what to do. The man then punched Alex in the stomach and grabbed his shirt.  
  
"Stay out of this," the man barked.  
  
The man threw Alex and he crash-landed in rack of bottles on the other side of the bar where Duo had stood by. Duo looked over the bar and saw Alex out cold.  
  
"This is going to be messy," Duo shook his head. Duo turned around to face the crowd, but didn't expect what happened next.  
  
The main doors flung open in the tavern and a group of three guys in ski masks ran in carrying MP-5's. They fired into the crowd, and killed several people including the man who threw Alex into the bar. The rest of the people were ordered to get on the ground, and Duo complied.  
  
"Of all the days to decide not to carry my gun," Duo grumbled after he reached down for his gun and didn't get anything.  
  
The robbers went to the bar area and ordered the bartender to tell them where the manager was. By this time, Alex came out of unconsciousness and stood up to have a MP-5 pointed at his head, though he was still slightly out of it.  
  
"Wow, is that your gun?" The idea of the gun pointed at his head finally got to him. He threw up his arms and knocked the gun out of the robber's hand. The MP-5 landed right by Duo's hands and, without hesitation, he picked up the gun and fired at the three robbers, all three were killed.  
  
"Phew," Duo got up and dusted off his priest clothes. "I love my marksmanship."  
  
"What exactly happened here?" Alex finally came into his right mind.  
  
"I'll explain a little later," Duo began to walk toward the door while he still carried the MP-5. The crowd still feared for their lives and backed off even further.  
  
Alex leaped over the bar and went after Duo. "What should we do about this?" He looked down at the dead bodies as he walked by them.  
  
"Nothing. Let the cops handle this."  
  
Duo threw the gun into a nearby gutter and left toward home. Alex followed closely behind him.  
  
On a nearby rooftop, a man cloaked in shadows observed the two as they walked away. He began to walk closer to the edge of the roof, and got hit by some nearby light. The man wore a black spandex outfit, with a black belt woven into the suit and held a desert eagle on each side. He also had a black leather trench coat over his outfit. To top it off, this man had a black head cover, similar to that of scuba divers. A black veil that was woven into the head cover; this way no one could see his face from any angle, except from below even then shadows covered his face.  
  
No thoughts ran through his mind and he was completely focused his sight on Duo and Alex. He came to realize that he had light on him and he slowly backed off into the darkness. He faded away slowly into darkness and vanished without a trace. 


	6. Rush

*Disclaimer* Gundam is copyrighted by Bandai Co. and what I use in here I don't legally own. It should not be used for profit and/or make Jackie Chan take on a band of rockers.  
  
Chapter 6- Rush  
  
Alex calmly sat on a couch in one the waiting room of the Preventor's base, which he had helped save, and stared up at the ceiling. Meanwhile, Lady Une, Wufei, Quatre, and Duo have kept an eye on him from an adjacent observing room.  
  
"So this is the guy who saved this base?" Wufei stated.  
  
"Correct," Lady Une replied.  
  
"He doesn't look like he has ever fought in battle, from looking at those eyes," Quatre commented.  
  
"Yet, he has at least fought in three battles. There might be more," Lady Une didn't keep such a close eye as the other two though.  
  
Duo continued to stay silent after what Alex did at the bar last night. "Its almost like he saw the robbery coming, and yet there could be no way of knowing it," Duo thought.  
  
"What do you plan on doing with him, anyway?" Quatre asked.  
  
"He is going to help out the Preventors, with anything involving mobile suits." Lady Une continued, "We just want to keep an eye on him, otherwise."  
  
"Good idea," Wufei commented. "We know very little of him, and, worse still, is that he didn't fight in the Earth-Sphere conflict, nor when Mariemaea tried to rule the earth sphere. I won't trust him."  
  
"I understand your argument, Wufei, but aren't taking it a little too far?" Quatre said.  
  
"I'm not taking too far, just not far enough. If he has a righteous reason for not fighting in those conflicts, then he will defeat me in battle," Wufei remarked bluntly.  
  
"Well, I would love to see this conversation continue, but I'm off to get something to eat." Duo said as he is about to head out the door, "Want anything?"  
  
"No thanks," the others almost said in unison.  
  
Duo walked out of the room and the doors slide shut. He walked down the hall leading to the mess hall, the thought of the events of last night still ever present in his mind. Was his friend a psychic of some type, or was it his imagination that played tricks on him? Once he has arrived there, he saw a huge line for the lunch bar stretching out as far as a block long, though instead of streets it was in hallways.  
  
"Great... just my luck. The entire base must be having lunch, right now," Duo cringed his eyes as he got into line.  
  
**Thirty Minutes Later**  
  
Duo had finally gotten out of line with his meal and has sat down to eat. While he ate, he began to remember the final days of the Earth-Sphere conflict, when all five gundam pilots had acted like a team.  
  
"Man, those were the days. But then again, we were fighting against a very powerful enemy, and had no choice," Duo thought as he shrugged. "Which makes me wonder, would we fight like that ever again?"  
  
He got up, and promptly disposed of his leftovers. Duo then headed down the hall that lead back to the where the others were. When he got to the door, he heard some noise from the other side of the door, like they were in a kind of game, and walked in to find Wufei and Alex in the middle of a game of chess.  
  
Alex moved his final piece, the Queen, "Stalemate."  
  
"Our strategies have neutralized themselves," Wufei reached up for a handshake out of good sportsmanship. "Good game." Alex shook Wufei's hand.  
  
"You guys played chess, while I was gone?" Duo raised an eyebrow.  
  
"It was my idea, so that I could get to know another pilot a little more." Alex had a smile on his face.  
  
"Though neither of us won, it was a good match none the less."  
  
"Alright, I'll play one of you then. Who will it be?" Duo said while walking over to them.  
  
"Go for it Wufei."  
  
"No, I think you should." Wufei then thought as he got up. "I want to see if you let us tie or if that game had integrity."  
  
"Alright." Duo sat down where Wufei played.  
  
Alex reassembled the pieces to their original positions and Duo moved the first piece, a pawn. Alex and Duo moved more of their pieces several more times. That is until Duo had a grin on his face as his picked up his next piece.  
  
"Check," Duo commented. "Get out of that."  
  
Alex hesitated for a moment not sure what do, but grudgingly moved his King's bishop. He knocked off Duo's last move, "Checkmate."  
  
"I was right." Wufei thought. "He let me tie him."  
  
Duo in utter shock looked frantically at the chessboard. "But how?"  
  
"Your left side was open the entire time," Wufei remarked just as Alex was about to say something. "Alex merely moved his bishop when you moved that piece into check, and he had you."  
  
Alex got up and headed for the door.  
  
"If you guys don't mind, I'm getting some sleep." Alex yawned a little. "I'm tired for some reason."  
  
Quatre watched him leave from the adjacent room, while Wufei also kept an eye on Alex as he left. Duo, on the other hand, just stared at the chessboard, and wondered how Alex had gotten that by him.  
  
"Who is that guy, really?" Wufei thought as he walked over to Duo.  
  
Duo glanced up at Wufei with a bewildered look on his face. "I still don't get it."  
  
"Here let me show you."  
  
Wufei sat down and reassembled the pieces back into their designated spots. He slowly stepped through the same game that Alex and Duo had just played. He showed what Duo had done wrong, and Duo put his head in his hand.  
  
"That makes a lot more sense. Thank you."  
  
~~~~~~~~~  
  
**Three Months Later**  
  
Lady Une sat in her office as she began to review some reports of the past three months, which had summaries for four outstanding events happen. She started from the most recent to the oldest of these four events.  
  
  
  
1- Colony L1X-9G78H was attacked by rebel mobile suits which wanted the mobile suit fuel there. This rebel group managed to hold the colony for several days. Heero Yuy in Wing Zero neutralized this force in a manner of thirty minutes upon his arrival.  
  
2- Mobile suit factory in the 1108 western sector of Russia was attacked by another group of mobile suits and was almost destroyed. The two gundam pilots, Wufei Chang in Altron and Trowa Barton in HeavyArms, arrived near the end of the battle thus successfully defended the base and pushed back the attackers.  
  
3- Colony L2G-88710 was taken over by an extreme, colony independence rebels and demanded the colony's independence. A combined effort of Duo Maxwell in Deathscythe Hell, Quatre Winner in Sandrock, and Alex Cros in Icedig managed to free the colony.  
  
4- Colony L2Y-89432: mobile dolls for unknown reasons attacked the Preventor base on this colony. Alex Cros in Icedig and Duo Maxwell in Deathscythe Hell protected the base from being destroyed.  
  
"Could these incidents all be linked?" Lady Une got up and stared out of her window. "Treize, what do you think will happen next?"  
  
A random thought came to her head, and she walked over to an electronic map of the colonies in relation to the earth. She then plotted the locations on the map, and saw a pattern, almost like a star shaped at certain times of the day. Lady Une grabbed up the official reports and skimmed through them to find the initial time of the incidents. They were all at the same time, and that meant there was certainly another attack imminent. She walked back to the map and with a red marker circled the colony mostly likely to be attacked.  
  
"If it is going to be L3T-99012, I need to get the word out." Lady Une thought again, and then remembered an activity being held on that colony. "Quatre and Alex are going to be there."  
  
Lady Une dashed over to her videophone.  
  
"Connect me to the Quatre Winner immediately."  
  
A second passed when the secretary got on receiving end.  
  
"Hold on madam." Another moment passed. "He isn't responding."  
  
"What about Alex Cros?"  
  
"He isn't responding either."  
  
A shock went over Lady Une's mind, the colony was already about to be taken over, and those two were headed there without a clue what was about to happen.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Quatre and Alex patiently stood in line to fill out docking papers.  
  
"I've never been on a colony that wanted docking papers filled out by everyone," Alex commented.  
  
"That's L3T-99012 for you, but at least the concert they hold here is worth it." Quatre replied with a smile.  
  
"Got that right."  
  
Eventually, Quatre and Alex got through the ordeal of filling out the paperwork and headed out. They got to the streets and saw the colony daylight once again.  
  
"For some reason, I'll never get used to this colony light." Alex looked straight up at the colony ceiling. "Even though I lived in the colonies my entire life, it is still depressing not seeing the sun. That's all."  
  
Alex and Quatre continued on their way to the concert.  
  
A Leo stood atop of a small building several blocks away from the concert. It has caught sight of Quatre and Alex and has them in its camera view.  
  
"Sir, I have sight of our target," the pilot said over a communication link.  
  
A voice replied, "Start the operation."  
  
Quatre and Alex have arrived at the concert location and sat down where their tickets said so.  
  
"When should this concert start anyway?" Alex glanced over at Quatre's watch.  
  
"About five minutes," Quatre replied.  
  
A few minutes later, the band called Green Knee came out and started the concert. The band did its usual first song named With Love Goodbye, and the audience began to cheer. Alex became annoyed with the audience, as he couldn't hear the band over them. He tried to get the crowd to quiet down, but it proved to be futile and he sat down.  
  
"Are all concerts like this one?"  
  
"Most of them."  
  
"Great, remind me to begin ear plugs or not come at all next time."  
  
Green Knee finished its first number and was about to begin its second number Stonewalled, when the building shook with a rumble. Another rumble occurred and the building began to crumble. This time the audience became quiet, and then another rumble shook the building, except this time the east wall collapsed with a Leo partially fallen through it. The audience began to scream and panicky rushed out of the building. Quatre and Alex were the only people left in the room still in their seats.  
  
  
  
"What do you think is happening outside?" Alex calmly asked.  
  
"I don't know, but we need to get out there," Quatre replied.  
  
Alex and Quatre ran out of the building and caught sight of a collapsed Leo down the street. A Taurus flew out from behind another building and fired on another Leo further down the street.  
  
"Dang it. Why do they fight in the middle of the city?" Alex said with some rage.  
  
"It doesn't matter now. We have to get to our mobile suits."  
  
"Figures, they are in the docking bay," Alex grumbled.  
  
Quatre and Alex ran off to retrieve their mobile suits. The Leos continued to fight the Taurus mobile suits as they tried not to damage buildings around them. Several of the Tauruses blew up and destroyed buildings as they crashed to the ground, but the Taurus continued to charge at the Leos. Finally after several intense minutes of the battle, Sandrock and Icedig arrived on the scene to back up the Leos.  
  
"Alright, I'll take the left side," Alex said.  
  
"And I get the right side."  
  
A few blocks away, a Leo crashed into the ground as it fired its rifle at a Taurus that few overhead. The Leo scored a direct hit on the Taurus's navigational system, and the Taurus plummeted to the ground. There was nothing left, but smoke, of the Taurus after it exploded upon impact. The Leo slowly got itself back up from the ground, and stood firmly on the ground again. The Leo looked around just in case there any more enemies, and then a flash of white light struck the camera for a moment. The flash was gone the next second.  
  
"What was that?" the pilot said.  
  
A blip appeared on the Leo's radar, but the object was behind it. The Leo turned itself around to face what caused the blip, and saw a bright, yellow mobile suit that held a green beam saber in its right hand.  
  
"A yellow mobile suit?" The pilot wouldn't get a chance to defend himself.  
  
The yellow mobile suit flew straight up to the Leo, and grabbed the Leo on the left shoulder with the left hand while the beam saber penetrated the cockpit with the right hand. This new mobile suit let go of the Leo, and it collapsed onto the ground. It unignited its beam saber and backed off into the city a little more.  
  
The rubble of the fallen buildings was still for several moments as a mobile suit approached on foot. Icedig appeared from behind a building, and began to scan the area. Alex had noticed the smoke from an explosion and decided to investigate what had gone on. To his horror, he spotted the fallen Leo with a melted hole in its back, an obvious sign of a beam saber.  
  
"What or who did this?"  
  
The yellow mobile suit stepped out from its hiding spot, and faced Icedig down.  
  
"A new model?"  
  
Alex took a good look at the suit. The mobile suit was about 16.2m high and had one orange, camera lens in its head. The entire mobile suit was bright yellow, except for the black beam cannon carried on its back. It had thrusters on its back along with a jagged spike to give stability at high speeds. Its feet were very narrow but were 6m long. The bright yellow color prevented Alex from completely seeing the mobile suit, for the color strained his eyes.  
  
Alex opened up a communication link to the pilot. "This is a danger zone. Get out of here immediately."  
  
"I know it is," the pilot smirked with large level of cockiness. "Toteis is the reason behind it."  
  
"What?"  
  
"Toteis is the name of this mobile suit," the pilot said.  
  
Before he could reply, Toteis reignited its beam saber and jetted at Icedig. Icedig ignited its beam saber just in time to block the attack. Icedig tried to counter-attack, but Toteis blocked every effort made by Icedig. These efforts would prove useless against Toteis, as this enemy started its second wave of attacks.   
  
"What have I gotten myself into?" Alex gasped for air as he tried to catch his breath. "I can't give up, not yet."  
  
Toteis jumped off the ground and smashed Icedig in the torso with its leg. Icedig collapsed to the ground on its back, and the beam saber it held was flung out of hand. Toteis slowly approached Icedig again, but activated its shoulder thrusters and got a good distance away. Icedig pulled out its gundanium sabre, and charged at Toteis at full speed. Alex screamed at the top of his lungs all the way.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Several minutes have passed by since Quatre had last seen Alex, but Quatre's only concern right now was to rid the colony of the Taurus mobile suits. This he did very well. From a force of forty Taurus mobile suits, there was barely anything left of the Taurus now. As Quatre sliced through one of the last Tauruses, it dawned on him that he had not seen Icedig during most of the battle.  
  
"Where did he go?" Quatre said to himself. "I swore he would be nearby."  
  
Sandrock slowly scanned the area around it, but found nothing, other than Leos in the area. The gundam ran across the west side of the city and tried to locate Icedig.  
  
"This is no time for a disappearing act."  
  
He got more than he bargained for, and the next few moments seemed to be an eternity to Quatre. Icedig crashed into a building in front of Sandrock, and the mobile suit laid there motionless for the next couple of moments. Its right arm was partially crushed from the mobile suit's weight and the head of Icedig slowly rolled to the side that faced Sandrock. There was no sign of Icedig's weapons, and the torso along with the shoulder area had severe damage on it.   
  
"Alex, come in. Do you read me?" Quatre shouted in vain as the communication link was nothing more than static.  
  
A beam of energy came out of direction Icedig had crashed from and struck the cockpit of Icedig. The energy melted away the cockpit, and Icedig exploded about twenty meters from Sandrock. The head of Icedig flew by Sandrock's cameras, and Quatre looked in horror at smoke for a second; then dashed up the wreckage of Icedig. Sandrock looked to its right and saw a yellow mobile suit that held a beam cannon down the street.  
  
"You monster!"  
  
The pilot of Toteis smiled, as he saw one of the famous gundams from Operation Meteor, but turned around and flew up into the air with speed that Sandrock wasn't able to match. Sandrock pulled out one of its heat shotels, and flung it at Toteis. The shot wasn't even to come close to Toteis as it disappeared in the distance.  
  
"This can't be... It just can't be!"  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
An hour after Icedig's explosion, Quatre stood in front of a videophone and had told what had happened to Lady Une.  
  
"Are you positive?"  
  
"Yes, I saw Icedig get destroyed in front of me. There was no way that Alex could have survived." Quatre couldn't stare her in the face as he spoke those words.  
  
"We'll get a report written up. I'll have a clean-up crew take care of the damage inflicted on the city." She looked at Quatre with sympathy. "We won't call you up for a few days. Get some rest Quatre."  
  
Quatre nodded his head in agreement, and shut off the videophone. He slammed his fist into the wall next to the videophone and cried a little bit.  
  
"We should not have split up like that. What a stupid mistake."  
  
Quatre walked away from the videophone. 


	7. Time between Valleys

*Disclaimer* I don't own the name Gundam, Bandai does along with the characters from the show.  
  
Chapter Seven- Time between valley walls  
  
Date: 13, 2, AC-198  
  
Location: Preventor Base- L4H1-38457 Colony  
  
Room 212 Conference Room  
  
Lady Une had called a meeting with the Administrators of the Preventors to discuss recent and future events. She knew that there would bitter opposition to what she wanted to say, and had to make a quick and clear statement to stop any doubt. Lady Une raised her left hand and partially coughed into it; she then began to speak.  
  
"As you all know, there was an attack on the colony L3T-99012 a few days ago. Our forces managed to repel the attack, though there were casualties."  
  
"We do know about that," one of the administrators said as he stood up. "But wasn't that new volunteer among the casualties?"  
  
"That is correct."  
  
"So he was over-rated in his ability?" the man sat back down and leaned on his right arm.  
  
"He wasn't over-rated," Lady Une states. "He was over-powered. It could have happened to anyone."  
  
"And, what about this yellow mobile suit?" another administrator asked.  
  
"From the data taken from the gundam Sandrock, it would seem that this mobile suit is a power support type, though we believe that it could easy fight hand-to-hand combat." Lady Une had a picture of the Toteis projected onto a wall that had been taken from Sandrock. " This is why I called you all here today. We have to assume that there is a power at work here with possibly enough fire power to take out our military ability plus some."  
  
"What?! How could this be?"  
  
"They might have been building up their forces for some time now, but it is only an assumption that they have that kind of strength."  
  
"What do you propose to solve this problem?"  
  
"I recommend that we build our military for the possibility of war. If not, then we might not stand a chance." Lady Une paused for a moment, "I'm calling for the authorization to increase arms in the case of possible war."  
  
"The people don't want war," a person in the far back says. "Especially those on earth."  
  
"I know that, so we'll have to keep it from their eyes. To keep it secret," Lady Une replies.  
  
Several days after this meeting, the administrative board asked for military increase and was approved on the conditions that it kept under wraps. The primary force would be stationed in the colonies, but some on earth as well.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Date: 16, 2, AC-198  
  
Time: 11:00AM  
  
Location: L2Y-89432 Colony, Bob's Boxing Emporium  
  
Duo gave a hard right hook to the sandbag in front of him, and then a hard left hook. Each punch zapped more of his strength as he desperately tried not to shed a tear. It had been a week since Alex had killed by the nameless yellow mobile suit, and there was simply nothing he could do about it. It was almost like Solo and the Maxwell Church all over again, almost, but he was upset with himself for not going with Quatre and Alex when he had the chance to. Now Alex was just another memory added to his past. He pounded the sandbag as hard as he could again, but this time he heard door slam shut behind him. He glanced at the door and saw a familiar boy that wore a green tank top along with brown shorts.  
  
"Well Heero. What brings you around here?" Duo turned his attention back to the sandbag and punched it again.  
  
Heero didn't say a thing as he walked up, and went onto the other side of the sandbag; he still could look Duo in the eyes, but not so close as to get hit by the sandbag from a light gab.  
  
"Are you going to answer my question?"  
  
Heero gave his usual stare at Duo, while Duo continued to punch the sandbag. Duo knew exactly why Heero was there, but he wanted the answer said aloud from Heero. Heero was here to take him off to be prepared, if there was another attack.  
  
"You should stop wasting your energy."  
  
"I wouldn't consider punching a sandbag being a waste of energy."  
  
"I'm not referring to that. It's your anger that is wasting your energy."  
  
"What anger?" Duo gave another blow to the sandbag even harder than the rest. Duo stopped as he pulled his hand back. "Ok, there might be some anger involved."  
  
"It wasn't your fault, or Quatre's. Alex rushed into battle not knowing what was going on." Heero still hadn't let go of the stare. "He paid the price for his actions."  
  
"That's cold, even for you!" Duo exclaimed as he left hooked the sandbag and sent the sandbag into a pendulum motion with an arc of five feet.  
  
"Being angry with me won't bring the guy back." Heero grabbed the sandbag and brought it to a halt.  
  
"Nothing else will either."  
  
"True, but, if you are so bent on being angry, put it into the battle against that yellow mobile suit."  
  
"You think we'll be fighting it?"  
  
Heero nodded his head slowly at what Duo said.  
  
"You mean that the attacks so far are just a prelude to what might happen in the future?"  
  
"I would say something more of a warning."  
  
"So why didn't they kill Quatre while they were at it?" Duo punched the sandbag again, but lighter than most of his punches.  
  
"No idea."  
  
"Let's get going then." Duo reluctantly took off his boxing gloves and noticed some burnt marks. "I was hoping to keep these clean." Duo let out a heavy sigh as he walked away from the sandbag.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Ten months had passed since Icedig was destroyed on the L3T-99012 Colony, but no attacks of any sort came. The new enemy seemed to have up and vanished from sight, or at least the Preventors thought so. The gundam pilots knew that this enemy could strike at any time.  
  
Date: 10, 12, AC-198  
  
Time: 9:00PM  
  
Location: L2Y-89432 Colony, Hilde and Duo's junkyard  
  
Hilde walked out of the garage, and carried a paper bag of parts. She had been doing the entire business of the junkyard for the most part for almost ten months now. Duo stopped in once and awhile, but that was few and far between. Right after Alex had gotten killed, she thought she saw Duo had developed some depression, but didn't like to show it. Hilde didn't mind this though for every time he came back from a training session Duo was a little bit happier. One thing did bug her though was the fact that Duo had gotten happier without her, though he was used to the battlefield and the guys he was training with. At that moment something caught her eye, the light in Duo's office was on. Hilde never turned on that light herself, and neither Duo nor her would forget to turn off the light before they closed shop. Was Duo back for a short while again? But, she hadn't seen or heard him come in. The thought of an intruder in junkyard crossed her mind, and she wasn't going to back down from the intruder. Whatever it was, she wanted to turn off the light before she left. Hilde walked over to Duo's office, where his paperwork was typically strewn about his desk, and found the place to be the same. No one forced an entry into the place, or there was no visible signs of it. There was only one thing out of order, Duo's chair. It faced away from the door she had entered, but Duo never left it that way.  
  
"Alright, get out of here at once, or else I'll force you out myself." Hilde said, and knew full well that being an ex-soldier allowed her to back up the claim.  
  
"I only came to find the gundam pilot, but since he isn't here. You'll be the next best thing to him." A voice spoke from the other side of the chair. It sounded very familiar to her, but couldn't put a finger on it.  
  
"What do you mean? Who are you?"  
  
Hilde dropped her bag of parts onto the floor and walked over to confront the owner of the voice. She spun around the chair and saw the man in the chair. He had piercing aqua blue eyes, brown hair, had a height of 6'2" and wore a strange black uniform, and the moment Hilde saw the man she gasped and backed off from him.  
  
"It can't be." "You're dead." These thoughts raced through her mind as she continued to back away from him. The expression of shock was on her face as well.  
  
She backed up another step and felt her elbow had hit someone behind her. A muscluar arm reached over her face and forced a wet cloth over her mouth and nose. The other arm of this man restrained Hilde's arms while she breathed in the fumes of the cloth. Her last vision before she passed out was a blurred view of Alex getting up and walking toward her. 


	8. Darkness: The War Begins

*Disclaimer* Gundam is copyrighted by Bandai Co. and what I use in here I don't legally own. It should not be used for profit and/or quote the famous saying "War is Hell".  
  
Chapter 8- Darkness: The War Begins  
  
Date: 14, 12, AC-198  
  
Time: 10:30AM  
  
Location: outskirts of Lunar Base  
  
Two Leos stood guard on the northeast perimeter of Lunar Base, and there were this type of arrangement of groups for each mile of lunar mile. This was one of the bases that took it at heart when the Preventors had increased its military presence in the colonies along with earth. Out of all of the Preventor bases stationed in the colonies, this was truly a very formidable force short of the gundams themselves. This force, though, consisted of mainly Leos and several Virgos. The dark side of the moon approached, but was still a mile away from them.  
  
"Harrison, why are we out here again?" one of the pilots commented.  
  
"Guarding this base," Harrison replied.  
  
"From what? Nothing has even come here other than shuttles in ten months."  
  
"We must always be prepared. We have no other choice."  
  
The dark side of the moon grew closer to them.  
  
"I guess your right, but still. What enemies?" the pilot continued. "I haven't heard anything about them, yet we should be afraid of them?"  
  
"Sometimes the most dangerous enemy isn't seen at first." Harrison noticed the dark side of the moon was approaching them. "Heads up the dark side is almost on top of us."  
  
"The dark side is almost upon us? Don't you dare, do your Darth Vader impression."  
  
"You have no sense of humor do you? Anyway, remember it gets cold in there."  
  
"I know the guidelines and procedures," the pilots paused for a moment. "Lets get going."  
  
The Leos turned around and began the walk back to the base. The dark side finally passed over them.  
  
"Man it got to us. At least the base has lights."  
  
As the Leos continued on, a small, round, glowing yellow light appeared behind them and seemed to have kept its distance. The Leos haven't noticed it. Then, the yellow light enlarged and got closer. A straight blue light showed up under the yellow light, and the two picked up speed after the Leos.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Time: 11:00AM  
  
Location: L4H1-38457 Colony  
  
Telecommunications Center  
  
The operators are relaxed in their chairs has there was little traffic on the frequencies most of the day. Though paid, they were bored and had breaks frequently. One of the operators noticed a flashing red button, which only indicated mobile suit attacks, and pushed it.  
  
"Can anyone hear me?!"  
  
"This is telecommunications center on L4H1-38457. What is the matter?"  
  
"Lunar Base is being attacked by unidentified black mobile suit."  
  
"What!"  
  
"We can't hold up against it. It's impossible to think, but it's already destroyed 80% of our operating mobile suits..."  
  
The operator began to panic. "Hold on, I'm going to get someone."  
  
"I just can't wait here. There is no telling if that suit will get in… oh my God… there is a yellow mobile suit as well…" Static filled the line.  
  
"Come in.."  
  
"Lunar Base, respond.."  
  
"Lunar Base, please respond.."  
  
Nothing came from the other side of the transmission.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Lady Une stood in a control room of one of the docking bays in the L4H1-38457 colony and opened a video link to a military shuttle docked in the bay. Quatre appeared on the other side of the video link.  
  
"Lady Une, what is it?"  
  
"You are aware that this is a rescue operation right?"  
  
"Quite aware, except I'm not sure if there is anyone left alive."  
  
"That's why you must go immediately, if you get there quickly enough you might be able to find some survivors. Another thing though, the mobile suits that attacked Lunar Base might still be there, so be careful. That is also why you and Duo are being sent immediately. Duo should arrive about 45 minutes after you."  
  
"Affirmative."  
  
The military shuttle began to take off.  
  
"And good luck," Lady Une thought. "The enemy has finally shown itself, and there is nothing left for us to do except to see what happens."  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Location: Lunar Base  
  
Time: 4:55pm  
  
Lunar Base used to be the proud base of OZ, White Fang, and the Preventors and saw a lot of action during the Earth-Sphere Colony Conflict. It helped make its share of existing mobile suits and new models, and was called one of the best bases that man has ever made. Now though, smoke fumed from a huge gapping hole in the moon's surface near the top of the base. The interior of the base has been reduced to nothing but a pile of rubble. Where mobile suit plants used to be, scrap metal and smoldering concrete lie. The glass offices of officials have been hollowed out and dangled by some steel cable anchors. The hangars have completely caved in from the carnage. Mobile suits lay around wrecked on the moon's surface, and it is also stained with blood and oil.  
  
Sandrock finally landed on the lunar surface near Lunar Base, and began to survey the damage. Shortly after his landing, a brigade of Taurus mobile suits land behind Sandrock.  
  
"Look at this carnage," Quatre thought. "There is nothing but senseless violence here."  
  
A communication link pops up in Sandrock's cockpit. "Where do you want to start?" The pilot asked, but got no answer at first. Quatre had been too distracted by the scene in front of him. The soldier repeated his question and got Quatre's attention.  
  
"Right.... Stay together, and begin searching for any survivors. If you encounter the guys who did this in this awful thing, tell me immediately. As for me, I'm going over to the other side then the interior." Quatre commented, "Be on your guard."  
  
Sandrock activated its thrusters and headed over to the other side of the base. Quatre searched the area, but found nothing other than wrecks of Leos that fumed smoke. Sandrock glanced back over to where the Tauruses were, and saw explosions like they were fireworks.  
  
"Damn it, I told them to contact me," Quatre pounded his fist into an unused part of his control panel. "Now those guys are being slaughtered. I have to move quickly."  
  
Sandrock started to thrust in the direction of the Taursuses, but a beam of energy forced it to dodge to the side and halted its advance. Sandrock's head turned to caught sight of where the energy came from, and saw Toteis on the lunar surface about fifty yards away.  
  
"That mobile suit... its the one that destroyed Icedig, but who does it work for?" Quatre thought as Sandrock faced Toteis.  
  
A communication link appeared in Quatre's cockpit, and the pilot cockily said. "Now, where do you think you are going?"  
  
"To stop the massacre from continuing, and monsters like you won't stop me!"  
  
"Come now, we're all sensible humans here." The pilot's eyes seemed to have no remorse for what had happened.  
  
"Humans wouldn't butcher their own kind!"  
  
"Oh, I'm so hurt." The pilot said sarcastically.  
  
"Who are you?!" Quatre realized he had yelled, and calmed himself down.  
  
"The name is Niou. Do you also want my rank and serial number while I'm at it? Maybe you would want to know why this attack occurred as well." Niou smirked as he struck a cord in Quatre.  
  
"Don't treat me like a child," Quatre kept his composure as he said that.  
  
"A gundam pilot being treated like a child, why I never heard of such a thing. Then again, maybe if you took your mission more seriously back in AC-195. This might not have happened."  
  
"Don't you dare, patronize me." This guy was striking nerve after nerve, and Quatre knew what he was up to. He had to keep his anger down or else.  
  
"Would I do such a thing?"  
  
"Bingo," Quatre thought. He looked Niou straight in the eye. "I wouldn't know. I couldn't help, but notice the fact that your mobile suit was responsible for taking a life. Back on the L3T-99012 colony, you destroyed an unusual tan mobile suit, and I want to know why."  
  
"I was merely taking care of old parts gone bad, nothing more," Niou smirked at the question. "If you really want to know, your friend begged for his life right up to the very end as I was beating his mobile suit into a pulp."  
  
"I've had enough of this," Quatre thought as he grinded his teeth together. Sandrock pulled out its heat shotels and wielded them in an x pattern. "Take that back!"  
  
"I'm sorry. I forgot that his last words were, 'Quatre, why have you forsaken me here'." Niou did an impression of someone in a begging position while he said those words.  
  
"That's enough!"  
  
Sandrock's thrusters warmed up and its heat shotels began to glow red. Suddenly, the explosions from the area where the Tauruses were had stopped and Sandrock took a quick look in that direction.  
  
"They are already gone?" Quatre was in shock as he thought this.  
  
"Looks like my comrade has already finished off your backup. It's a shame really; I thought they would have lasted another minute. Heck, I even put a bet on it too."  
  
"How dare you, putting money before humans!"  
  
In the distance, two black objects approached the two; one was walking and the other was being dragged. Sandrock picked up on the possible enemies and decided to charge at Toteis. If he could defeat this mobile suit quick enough, he would only have to fight one on one with the other mobile suit. This proved to be more futile than Quatre had expected. Every time he attacked with the heat shotels, Toteis gracefully dodged each attack like they were nothing to it.  
  
"That mobile suit has a lot more speed than I expected. Crap, the other mobile suit is nearly within range." Quatre panicked in his mind, but forced himself to focus on the enemy at hand.  
  
Sandrock took one final swipe with its left arm then a backward slice with its right, and this caught Toteis off guard. The beam cannon, it had carried in its right arm during this little scrimmage, had been sliced in half and Toteis forced to ditch the weapon before it exploded.  
  
"Awesome, I got its primary weapon."  
  
"Damn it. I was too wreckless around this guy." Niou wanted to beat himself for the careless mistake, but knew that this wasn't the time to do so.  
  
Toteis jetted backwards, and landed thirty meters on the lunar surface from Sandrock. Toteis ignited its green beam saber, and the mobile suits stared at each other for a moment.  
  
The staring contest ended though, when a Taurus was thrown in between the two. Its head was thoroughly smashed in, and the cockpit was crushed. When the Taurus crashed into the lunar surface, it stirred up a small dust cloud, which settled shortly there after. Sandrock looked from where the Taurus had been thrown from, and saw that the black mobile suit had arrived. The mobile suit looked hauntingly familiar to Quatre, but he couldn't think of where he could have seen this suit before. He now knew that he was in big trouble with the arrival of this mobile suit.  
  
"Two on one? This doesn't look good. "  
  
"Nicely done. I thought those Tauruses would have given you more grief, but I'm guess I was wrong. Since they weren't much of a challenge to you." Niou said to the newly arrived pilot. "Try out the BlitzWavine on this gundam. It 'might' prove to be a good test of your skills." The pilot nodded to Niou's suggestion.  
  
BlitzWavine looked straight at Sandrock, and pulled out a gundanium sabre. Quatre recognized that weapon from being from Icedig, but it couldn't be. Icedig was destroyed along with all of it weapons, or at least so he thought. Some sunlight glared off of BlitzWavine, and now Quatre saw the head of it. There was no doubt now, this mobile suit had a great similarity to that of Icedig. The main differences between the suits were the paint job, and several suit features. It had a second outcropping on the shoulders, a stabilizer wing in the middle of its back, and additional thrusters on its upper arm and leg areas.  
  
  
  
"This mobile suit is so similar to Icedig, but it can't. It just can't be." Quatre opened up a communication link to BlitzWavine's cockpit. "Identify yourself…" Quatre saw the face of the pilot and couldn't believe his eyes. "Alex?! How can it be? I saw you die with my own eyes."  
  
Alex didn't respond, but gave a strange look. His eyes had the look like some tragic happened to them, but didn't have any depression behind it.  
  
"Answer me," Quatre exclaimed.  
  
"How do you know my name?"  
  
"You don't remember me? I fought along side…."  
  
"He is lying, Alex." Niou interrupted Quatre. "He is nothing more than an enemy. You shouldn't listen to him at all."  
  
"How dare you…."  
  
"Brother, please stop his insistent whining. It is annoying." Niou smirked while Alex nodded.  
  
BlitzWavine jetted off at Sandrock while it wielded its sabre. Sandrock charged forward at BlitzWavine, and the x pattern of the heat shotels held back the gundanium sabre as it was forced down. The two mobile suits pushed back and forth as they tried to get the advantage in this stalemate. Sandrock slid its shotels to the sides as it backed off of BlitzWavine. BlitzWavine stumbled forward as the sabre came down, and Quatre had his first chance at the vulnerable suit. Sandrock lunged forward with one of its trademark attacks, and BlitzWavine moved to the right; it barely dodged the attack, which might have just shreddered the armor easily. Quatre saw BlitzWavine dodge the attack with what he thought was some grace, and jetted off to its left. Sandrock just barely dodged BlitzWavine's downward cut as it scooted away. BlitzWavine's sabre smashed and had dug into the lunar surface and it looked up at Sandrock, who had by now turned around and held its shotels for its next attack.  
  
"I'm sorry, Alex." Quatre let out some tears.  
  
Sandrock activated its rear thrusters and moved in. Just as Sandrock was about on top of BlitzWavine, it swiped its sabre out of the ground and flung moon dust into Sandrock's camera and partially jammed up its radar. It then quickly backed up, and Sandrock stopped after getting nailed by dust. Sandrock had stopped, but it flailed around with its heat shotels; this way it would be guarded to a degree. Quatre was as blind as a bat in Sandrock; there was no radar and cameras that could have given him a location of the mobile suit. Finally the dust got out of the camera, but the radar was still scrabbled until a blip appeared behind him on the screen.  
  
"Crap."  
  
Sandrock tried to turn around and block the attacker, but it was too late. In one swipe, Sandrock's right arm was out of commission, the heal shotel held in that hand snapped in half and flew helpless to the ground, and the rear thrusters were destroyed.  
  
  
  
"Damn it."  
  
Before Quatre had a chance to react, BlitzWavine flew up to Sandrock; it promptly impaled Sandrocks through the upper torso and pulled out its sabre. Sandrock stood there and BlitzWavine looked at the gundam as the sparks flew. During the course of the battle, they had gotten closer and closer to the gap made during Lunar base's destruction, but Quatre didn't realize this and had Sandrock back up slowly as BlitzWavine stared on.  
  
"What made you do this Alex?" Alex didn't respond.  
  
Sandrock took a step back again, but this time BlitzWavine took a step forward as well.  
  
"What happened back on L3T-99012? What did they do to you?"  
  
Sandrock took another steap back, and BlitzWavine matched the movement.  
  
"Answer me!"  
  
"You are nothing more than an enemy. Try to stop acting like you're a friend of mine, and maybe I'll spare you."  
  
BlitzWavine ignited its blue beam saber, and took a step forward. Sandrock picked up the pace as it tried in vain to escape BlitzWavine. Suddenly, Quatre felt a slight tremor under Sandrock, and then saw cracks that began to form around him. Quatre tried to activate its thrusters, but had forgotten that his opponent had taken them out. The ground collapsed, and Sandrock plunged into a four hundred-foot drop through twisted metal and concrete. Parts of Sandrock flung off like paper being toren away, but the ground below stopped what had remained of Sandrock, was its cockpit and life support system. BlitzWavine took a look down at the wreck, and then walked back to Toteis.  
  
"Dead or alive."  
  
"I believe he is still alive down there."  
  
"Good. You followed Ito's orders to a tee."  
  
"For some reason, I didn't want to kill anyway. Something about his personality."  
  
Niou partially cringed at what Alex had said. This might mean that, his brother might have begun to remember everything, but put his fears aside for the time being.  
  
"He might been the only one who gave you sympathy during the time you were captured." Niou replied in hope that Alex wouldn't remember anymore.  
  
"Yes. That would make sense. I wondered why he knew my name."  
  
"Anyway, we have best rendezvous with the others," Niou said as he shut down the link. He let out a breath of relief.  
  
Toteis and BlitzWavine flew off into space and stirred up moon dust in the region.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Deathscythe Hell landed near the base and saw smoke fumes everywhere, but no sign of Quatre's group and no enemy. Deathscythe Hell walked over to a large pile of smoldering wreckage and paid close attention to it.  
  
"They could have at least left me some to fight, but they had to be greedy." Duo smiled hesitantly. "Wait, the report said there were two mobile suits. These had to have come from at least…."  
  
Duo saw a Taurus head that was stuck out of the ground, and backed off from the wreckage. This was a nightmare; it had to be a nightmare. He was asleep and that was that.  
  
He pinched himself. "Crap this is very real."  
  
Duo began to scan for anything else that remotely resembled a mobile suit, and he did with the Taurus that lay lifeless off in the distance.  
  
"Quatre, where are you man?! Don't play hide and seek on me."  
  
As he flew toward the Taurus, he saw what looked like one of Sandrock's heat shotels near the huge gap in moon. Deathscythe Hell landed by the shotel and noticed faint marks in the lunar surface that approached the gap. It walked closer and took a look down the hole. He saw mobile suit parts scattered, as his camera zoomed further down the hole. Duo finally saw the head of Sandrock on his screen.  
  
"QUATRE!" 


	9. Lost Souls

**Disclaimer** The gundam name is owned by the Bandai Co. It should not be used for any profit, and I swear if notepad acts up again...  
  
Chapter 9- Lost Souls  
  
Date: 15, 12, AC-198  
  
Time: 9:00AM  
  
Location: Preventor Shuttle #45  
  
Quatre lay unconscious in an infirmary bed surrounded by curtains, while Duo was asleep in a chair next to the bed. Quatre had a blood stream down his face, and his hair was stained with blood. His left leg had been broken in several places, but has been splintered up by a medic onboard. Quatre's right arm was covered in bandages to stop the bleeding, and most of the bandages were the color of rusty blood. Quatre soon began to come out of unconsciousness, and saw the world blurry. At the same time, Duo was slowly, but surely, sliding to his right, and fell off the chair; he slammed hard into the ground.  
  
Duo jumped up from shock. "I'll never fall asleep in those chairs again."  
  
"Must have hurt," Quatre commented after he heard Duo fall out of his seat.  
  
"You're telling me. I keep an eye on you for the night, and what do I get? A knock on the head, sheesh...."  
  
Duo looked over at Quatre, and joy filled his eyes.  
  
"What is it?" Quatre started to get his vision back.  
  
"Well, I wasn't sure if you were going to make it." Duo sat back down.  
  
"What are you talking about?"  
  
Quatre stared at Duo for a second. Then, the memories of the day before started to come back to Quatre. Quatre remembered how the Lunar Base was destroyed by the time he got there, and the battle with BlitzWavine. A shock went through Quatre when he remembered whom the pilot was.  
  
"Duo." Quatre continued, "The pilot of the mobile suit I fought was Alex."  
  
Duo stared at Quatre with an eyebrow raised. "That guy must have bumped you on the head too much. I mean Alex was killed ten months ago. You saw it with your own eyes. There is no way a dead man can pilot a mobile suit."  
  
"I'm not imagining things, Duo. I saw Alex on the other side of that link."  
  
Duo still was in denial, "It's impossible."  
  
A Preventor soldier opened the curtain. Duo turned around and glared at the soldier.  
  
"I told no one to come in here, other than the doctor."  
  
"Sir, I know that, but there is something you need to see."  
  
"What is it?"  
  
"Our technicians managed to bring up the data of Sandrock's last battle."  
  
Duo walked toward the soldier, "stand guard over him."  
  
He proceeded down toward the shuttle's holding bay through poorly lit hallways. The hallways reminded him of the Earth-Sphere conflict when the five gundam pilots were fighting together for the first time, and were not doing a very good job at it. Each light Duo passes, it reminded him how much he was appreciated by the others, which was few and far between.  
  
Finally, Duo reached the holding bay where a group of technicians were by the remnants of the cockpit of Sandrock. The cockpit had several scars from the fall, and charred wires lay limp on top of the cockpit. He jumped over the rail, and glided over to the group.  
  
"Have you guys found anything?"  
  
"Yes, take a look."  
  
For the next few minutes, Duo was in shock as BlitzWavine began battle with Sandrock, and had beaten it without much trouble. Even more of a shocker, was the sight of Alex on the other side of the communication link Quatre had opened. Duo was in disbelief when he walked out of the cockpit abruptly.  
  
"How could this be? Alex was killed on that colony; it's impossible that he could have survived. Let alone turn against us." Duo thought, "It just can't be Alex."  
  
Duo jumped up and slowly glided to the rail above. He grabbed the rail, and flipped himself onto the walkway. Duo walked to a lounge room and relaxed on a green couch. Too many things had troubled him lately; the first was Hilde's disappearance, then Lunar Base, and now the possibility that a dead friend was an enemy. It was too much for him to have handled, and Duo fell asleep once again.  
  
Location: L4H1-38457 colony  
  
Docking Bay- Conference Room  
  
Date: 15, 12, AC-198  
  
Time: 1:00pm  
  
Duo sat in a corner away from the others. Wufei and Trowa sat on a blue, 70's style couch and talked about what had happened on Lunar Base. Heero leaned up against a wall and listened to Trowa and Wufei's conversation.  
  
"I thought he had some sense of justice in him, but not now." Wufei commented.  
  
"We should have done a better job of keeping an eye on him. " Trowa said. "From the photo I got of him, his eyes seemed so cold to me. Nothing like the photo I got a year ago." Trowa glanced at the pictures taken from Sandrock's data on the table.  
  
"Sometimes, some people can't be understood fully."  
  
"I know, but it does seem that something tragic happened to him. You can almost see in it those eyes." Heero looked at the picture Trowa had referred to and saw what he was talking about.  
  
"If this new cause of his is good, he'll defeat me."  
  
"I wouldn't take it that far. Look at what happened to Quatre. It very well could happen to any of us. We really haven't even seen what that yellow mobile suit and this guy Niou can do yet." Trowa paused. "I've seen how Alex fought on that data, and whatever happened to him he has gotten better by a huge sum." Wufei nodded in agreement.  
  
Duo's mind wandered on the past few days of activity, from finding out that Hilde had vanished to Alex's sudden change of sides. A tear ran down Duo's face as he thought of Hilde being missing, and the other eye wept for Quatre along with Alex. Heero glanced over at Duo, and pushed himself off the wall. He slowly walked toward Duo, and rested against the wall.  
  
"It isn't your fault," Heero whispered.  
  
Duo looked at Heero with a confused look on his face.  
  
"Quatre fought his best against him. If you had gotten there earlier, you might be in the same place that Quatre is or worse."  
  
"That doesn't make me feel better." Duo snapped back while whispering.  
  
"As for Alex, I'm going to kill him for his own sake."  
  
"What?" Duo stood up and glared at Heero.  
  
"On that link, he was begging to be killed."  
  
"I didn't see that."  
  
"Look at his eyes and you'll see."  
  
The two were silent for a few minutes as they stared at each other. Duo opened his mouth to say something, but Lady Une came in with a briefcase in hand.  
  
"I'm sorry to say this, but we're moving off to the L4W-77321 colony." Lady Une stated.  
  
"How come?" Duo said.  
  
Trowa, Wufei, and Duo walked over to Lady Une while Heero continued to lean up against the wall.  
  
"I thought that colony was under construction?" Trowa comments.  
  
"That's correct, only a construction crew is present there. There hasn't been a transmission from them for hours now."  
  
"Maybe, they had a power failure?" Duo stated.  
  
"We sent out two Leos to check out the colony."  
  
"They haven't been heard from?" Wufei comments.  
  
"That is correct."  
  
Heero got off the wall, and headed toward the door.  
  
"Heero, where do you think your going?" Duo asked.  
  
"L4W-77321."  
  
"We haven't proved anything yet."  
  
"They are going to use the colony as a base," Heero replied.  
  
"Positioning themselves, then..." Wufei said.  
  
"Checkmate." Trowa added on.  
  
"Wait whose they?" Duo asks.  
  
"Who do you think?"  
  
Duo face went pale as he realized who would do that. Trowa, Wufei, and Heero left the room, leaving Duo still stunned. Lady Une looked at Duo, and put her hand on his shoulder.  
  
"They'll need your help. Whether they admit it or not."  
  
"I just can't...."  
  
"I know what your going through, but the world needs you again. Hilde needs you."  
  
Duo finally came out of his disillusion state, and began to leave the room.  
  
"I don't care whether he is part of the enemy. Here is still my friend and I will save him. Then, find Hilde. I'm going to save them both."  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Location: L4W-77321 colony  
  
Battleship Orion  
  
Date: 15, 12, AC-198  
  
Time: 6:00pm  
  
Battleship Orion was based off the design of Battleship Libra, so the two bare a remarkable appearance to each other. Except, that Orion has a ring that encircles the crystal shape arms, and the main cannon is round rather than square. The only thing that hindered Orion is that it has mobility issues with its outer ring. The battleship easily dwarfed mobile suits and can accommodate a thousand mobile suits, excluding specially made mobile suits. It currently hovered by the colony, until further military activity.  
  
Niou and Alex were in a locker room, near the north end of the battleship, as they put on their space suits.  
  
"I can't believe how easy that gundam was," Niou bragged as though he was the one responsible for the defeat of Sandrock. "And here I thought the gundam pilots from Operation Meteor were suppose to be tough."  
  
Alex wasn't paying attention to Niou, and stared his space suit gloves. His eyes seemed to have no personality behind them, and only one thought went through his mind. The meeting he had with one of the prisoners on board.  
  
~~~flashback~~~  
  
Alex stood in front of a prison cell door and patiently waited as a guard checked his authorization. He had only came to his cell for one reason, to find out what he had seen days earlier and again the day before.  
  
"Why did they react the way they did?" Alex thought as he stared at the door.  
  
"Sir, you have permission, now, to talk to the prisoner, Hilde Schbeiker." The jail door slid open and Alex walked inside.  
  
Alex took another step further into the room while he grabbed a chair to sit on. Hilde had kept an eye on him since he came in as she sat in her bed; she feared what he might do to her, but she also felt that he wasn't here to hurt her, yet. He had cold, unsympathetic eyes as she stared back at him.  
  
"Do you want something?"  
  
Alex stayed silent for a minute at her words. "I came to ask you something."  
  
"If you think I'm interested in betraying Duo and the others, like you have? Then you've come to the wrong place."  
  
"Traitor? I don't know what you are talking about. I merely came to find out something that has been bugging me since yesterday."  
  
"What might that be?"  
  
"You and a gundam pilot I fought yesterday, both had stunned or shocked faces when you both saw me for the first time. It was like you had seen some sort of ghost, yet I know I have never seen the two of you before."  
  
"A gundam pilot?!"  
  
"Yeah, he had blonde hair and piloted a white gundam." Hilde had a half-hearted smile when she heard Quatre's description. Duo was safe for the moment, but Quatre might be dead. "I left him alive, though. I had orders to do so."  
  
"What do you mean orders?"  
  
"That is classified."  
  
"Classified, huh?" Hilde stood up. "What about the events that lead up to ten months ago? Is that classified too?"  
  
"I wouldn't know. Your gundam pilot friends would more than me. I can barely remember what happened four months, when I came out of a coma in a hospital on this ship. Six months before that, I was told I had escaped from prison complex run by the Preventors. Where they gave me this." Alex rolled up part of his shirt's right sleeve and showed scars on his upper shoulder. "This covers my entire back. I want revenge for what they did to me."  
  
Hilde saw the scars in horror. Whatever happened to him the past ten months had some sort of brainwashing and amnesia effect on Alex.  
  
"What have they done to you?"  
  
Alex stood up and pushed her back down into her bed. "I don't know what they did to me, but according to my brother. It was awful. Incredibly awful." Alex backed off a little bit.  
  
"I meant what these people have done to you. Wait, you have a brother?"  
  
"These people are my family, and yes I do have a brother. It was proven through genetics. He pilots along side me in battle, now." Alex spoke each word with anger.  
  
Hilde paused a moment for she didn't know what to say.  
  
"I guess it was futile asking you these questions, you haven't been straight with me." Alex turned his back to Hilde as he headed toward the door.  
  
She got up and walked forward in a pleaded gesture. "Alex, wait." Alex turned around. "You really want to know why? It's the fact that we knew you personally over ten months ago. You stayed at the junkyard that me and Duo ran for a couple of months. You helped out with business, and you had fun with Duo. Quatre knew your name from being introduced to you. Don't you see? We were your friends."  
  
"Nice try," Alex faced the door again. "I won't fall for such lies. This is where I belong, and I will have my revenge. Open the door." The door opened and Alex stepped forward. Hilde tried to run for the door, but the door slammed in her face.  
  
"Alex! Listen to me, you've been brainwashed!" Hilde yelled at the top of her lungs while she pounded on the door and cried. "Alex don't listen to them, they are just using you! Alex!" She slid against the wall and stopped on the ground. Hilde cried all the while. "Duo, whatever you do. Don't fight him, he doesn't know what he is doing."  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
"I knew I should have been one of those chosen for Operation Meteor, but no they let scientists choose who should go. That was asking for trouble if you ask me." Niou finally noticed that Alex hadn't paid attention to him, "Didn't you hear a word I have been saying."  
  
Alex stayed silent for a moment and looked up. "I'm sorry brother. I was just thinking of something, nothing important though."  
  
"Ok." Niou stared at him for a moment. "Don't tell me that he is regaining his memory at this time. Shit this isn't good. I have to tell Ito, but I don't want to lose my brother at the same time." Niou quietly thought with concern. "Alex, are you ready for our next assignment."  
  
"Who is our next target?"  
  
"Any of the remaining pilots."  
  
"Affirmative." Alex gets up. "We have to report to Ito now."  
  
Alex put on his helmet and headed toward the hallway. Niou followed close behind. As they walked down the hall, the lights slowly flickered and Alex saw black.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
He stood in a dim-lighted room with an angled table that had restraints on it. Light crept in through a door that had just opened, and three men came in. Two of the men dragged the third, but this man looked strangely familiar to Alex. It was as though this man was himself, but from a third person perspective. If it were he dragged in, he would be in the man's eyes. As Alex thought more deeply from his sight, the man was strapped into the table and a scientist stepped in with a needle in hand. The prisoner struggled to get out of the restraints, but couldn't make any of the restraints bung.  
  
"What are you doing? Fight back, you can do it." Alex yelled.  
  
The scientist spoke some words that he couldn't understand along with prisoner. The prisoner's face went pale after the conversation as he saw the man got closer. Alex threw a punch at the scientist but it through him.  
  
"Its nothing but a dream." Alex looked in horror as the man got injected and lost consciousness.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Niou shook Alex a little bit and he snapped out of it. Alex looked in front of him and saw the door to Ito's office. He rubbed his eyes  
  
"Bro. Don't zone out on me like that again. Ok?"  
  
"Understood."  
  
Niou pressed his palm against the scanner on the door, and it opened like a charm.  
  
"Ito, we're here to check-in." Niou said as they walked in.  
  
Ito turned around in his chair. Ito had short-gray hair, emerald green eyes, and wore a blue military suit without a hat; he was also sixty years old. He looked at them with his arms crossed, and had the look on his face that he shouldn't be messed with.   
  
"I must say. Excellent work at Lunar Base, I couldn't have done it better myself."  
  
"Thank you, sir." Niou yelled but Alex didn't reply.  
  
"I have some good news for both of you."  
  
"What might that be sir?"  
  
"As we have expected, my contacts have confirmed that the Preventors are mobilizing against us. This means that within a few hours, they should attack this battleship. Our strategy lies in the destruction of the gundams, simple as that. With them out of the picture, there will be nothing stopping us from taking over the world. I expect the best from both of you in dealing with the four remaining gundams."  
  
"Yes sir." Niou said alone.  
  
Niou left the room, but Alex stood still there.  
  
"Is there sometime wrong?"  
  
"I think there is something wrong with my mind."  
  
"How come?"  
  
"I had this bizarre dream when I came down here. It seemed like I was being tortured or something."  
  
"I know what it is. It is one of your memories of being trapped in that Preventor prison. They torture people there frequently. Don't worry about it otherwise."  
  
"Ok. Thank you, sir." Alex began to walk toward the door.  
  
"Please send in Niou real quick."  
  
Alex left the room and, a few moments later, Niou walked in. The doors slammed shut behind him.  
  
"You wanted to see me alone, sir?"  
  
"When were you going to tell me?"  
  
"Tell you what?"  
  
"That his memory is starting to come back?"  
  
"What do you mean? I saw nothing of the sort."  
  
Ito pounded his fist on his desk, and Niou eyes reflected fright to what might come next.  
  
"He said on his way here that he had a vision of what looked like a man being tortured. Do you know what that means?" Niou stood perfectly still, but was trembling on the inside. He remembered Alex had zoned out just before arriving there. "It means that we will have to just get rid of him, if he regains more. It would be a waste of resources, but once he regains that memory he won't be able to be controlled again."  
  
"I know we would have to do that, sir, but he is my brother. I could talk some sense into him after the battle."  
  
"And risk the possibility of him regaining the rest of his memory, even if he didn't get it back during the battle. That has to the dumbest thing I've heard out of your mouth! You know that in war there are losers and there are winners." Niou gulped at the words with nervous sweat that ran down his face. "Remember things happen for reasons that we may not like. If Hirofumi Jukodo hadn't have interfered with our plans in AC-184, the conflicts right now would never have happened. Don't you agree?"  
  
The eighteen year-old shook his head in agreement. "I do hate that man for what he did. Wiping out all of those children at that facility, but why did he take Alex if he had wanted all of those children dead?"  
  
"I honestly don't know, but that isn't the issue right now. What does matter is this battle." Ito turned his chair around and stared into space. "The most he can take on is two of those gundams, if we are lucky. Keep the other two occupied if possible."  
  
"Yes, sir." Niou said without letting out a nervous expression.  
  
"Oh yes. Don't be too defensive of your brother, otherwise you might find yourself on the wrong side."  
  
The message was crystal clear to Niou. "Affirmative."  
  
"Dismissed."  
  
Niou marched out of the room to find Alex leaned up against a wall a little ways down the hall. The door slammed shut behind Niou.  
  
"What did Ito want to talk to you about?"  
  
"It's nothing. Just a prep talk, that's all."  
  
"Ok, but I swore I heard yelling in there." Red lights flashed down the hallway and sirens rang off. "They are here."  
  
"Let's get going."  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Deathscythe Hell, Wing Zero, Heavyarms kai, and Altron flew through space with an army of Leos behind them. Deathscythe Hell got within sight of Battleship Orion and the group stopped. Deathscythe Hell glazed at the battleship as though it were a nightmare from the past.  
  
"Is that Libra?" Duo thought. "No, it can't be. It has to be something else."  
  
"Looks like we came to the right place." Trowa commented.  
  
"Duo and I will get the west side. Trowa and Wufei get on its north side." Heero commanded, "Leos break up into two and get the east and south side."  
  
The mobile suits broke up into their groups and jetted off to their objective.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Wing Zero and Deathscythe made it to the west side of Orion and encountered heavy Taurus resistance. The Taurus concentrated their beam rifle fire as they tried to destroy the two gundams, but Wing Zero and Deathscythe Hell began to make short work of them with their beam saber and beam scythe.  
  
"We have to break through, no matter what."  
  
"Affirmative."  
  
Wing Zero pulled out its twin buster rifle and charged it up. Deathscythe Hell provided some cover for Wing Zero, and then it fires a beam of energy that plowed through anything while it produced explosions from fifty Tauruses. Wing Zero put its twin buster rifle away, and ignited its beam saber again. More Taurus mobile suits headed their way from docking bays from across Orion.  
  
"How many are there?" Deathscythe Hell took a swipe and destroyed three Taurus mobile suits.  
  
Heero didn't reply, and continued to destroy more Taurus mobile suits.  
  
Toteis observed their battle from the shell on the battleship. He saw Wing Zero and Deathscythe Hell tore apart the mobile suits like finely tuned machines was making Niou mad, yet understood how much stronger they are compared to the Taurus. He had hoped the mobile dolls could have held off the two gundams, but that became less likely. Niou cringed as each explosion rang out. He had to stop both gundams with the aid of his primary weapon, and to keep them from fighting BlitzWavine. Niou felt a nervous shake flow through his body, but forced Toteis to get off the battleship. Toteis flew toward Deathscythe, while the Taurus mobile suits fell back and retreated.  
  
A communication link opened in both Duo's and Heero's cockpit, "I hope that you both enjoyed the last easy victories you'll ever have. This is the beginning of the end for both of you. Prepare to die."  
  
Duo recognized the face and couldn't keep a hold of his anger. "It's you. I'll have pleasure tearing your heart out."  
  
Duo is completely focused on defeating Toteis. Deathscythe Hell fired up its rear thrusters, but Wing Zero pushed it out of the way.  
  
"Heero, what do you think you are doing?"  
  
"I'll take him on. Go on without me."  
  
"And leave you alone with that jerk. No way."  
  
"He wants to fight both of us. Can't you see that? Join up with Wufei and Trowa. That's where Alex will appear at."  
  
"How could you tell that?"  
  
"I figured one of the two would take us on, then the remaining would take on the others. Since this one showed up."  
  
"It would only makes sense that…" Duo shook his head as he thought about it.  
  
Deathscythe Hell maxed out its thrusters, and began to get out out of range of the battle between Wing Zero and Toteis.  
  
"Where do you think you are going!" Niou exclaimed as he dodged Wing Zero and almost caught up to Deathscythe Hell.  
  
"The speed behind that guy is horrific." Duo thought as Deathscythe Hell reignited its beam scythe in its defense.  
  
Toteis suddenly stopped in its tracks as Wing Zero grabbed a hold of it, and flung it away from Deathscythe Hell.  
  
"Duo, don't make me repeat myself." Duo nodded.  
  
Deathscythe Hell blasted off and didn't take another look, as he got further and further away from the two.   
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Heavyarms kai and Altron had encountered no resistance on the north side of the battleship. This greatly troubled the two for they knew the enemy must have detected them.  
  
"Something is wrong here."  
  
"I agree. There should be some defense here." Wufei looked over the area for anything.  
  
"This has 'trap' written all over it."  
  
A brigade of Virgo dolls charged up their beam cannons and fired a volley of energy at the gundams. Heavyarms kai moved to its left while dodging the energy beams and began to open fire with its gatling gun. Altron jetted up and out and dodged the beams of energy as well. Altron pulled out its double-sided beam trident and ignited it. Wufei prepared to charge the Virgos, when he saw something unidentified on his radar. Altron looked into the direction of the target, but saw nothing in camera view at first. He patiently looked at the screen and a yellow dot moved differently than the stars around it. It had to be BlitzWavine.  
  
"Trowa, take care of these guys. I'm going after Alex."  
  
Heavyarms kai continued to fire its gatling gun and ripped apart the Virgo dolls. "Affirmative."  
  
Altron jetted off to catch up to the yellow light, except it didn't take much effort since the yellow light had been approaching it. Altron spun its double-sided beam trident around and thrust slashed at BlitzWavine. BlitzWavine ignited its beam saber and blocked the attack. The beam weapons held the other mobile suit at bay, and neither could move an inch. Altron backed off and spun its double-sided, beam trident over its head. It then brought down the double-sided, beam trident on BlitzWavine, but BlitzWavine blocked the attack to a stand still.  
  
Wufei thought, "We're are at a stalemate again. There has to be a way to get past it. Nataku lend me your strength."  
  
Altron pulled back its double-sided, beam trident, and flew backwards while Alex was there mystified by the move.  
  
"Another frontal attack? Both of us grounded to a halt when he did that last time." Alex thought as he tried to figure out what the next move was going to be.  
  
Altron rose up its left arm and fired the dragon claw at BlitzWavine.  
  
"Crap!"  
  
BlitzWavine desperately dodged attack only to find out that a second dragon claw had come up from behind it. The second dragon claw smashed into BlitzWavine's back and knocked it forward where the dragon claw crashed and pierced the cockpit door. Alex put his hands over his eyes, but no explosion came. He looked again and saw Altron had just backed off from BlitzWavine. Cold sweat ran down his face and his breathed a little faster than he normally did.  
  
"What the hell was that?" Alex wiped the sweat off his face. "Wait… The attack is coming…"  
  
Altron raised up its left arm and prepared to fire its dragon claw. BlitzWavine charged at Altron and forced it to defend itself with both arms holding the trident. Altron attacked again with a swiping movement of the double-sided, beam trident. BlitzWavine jetted backward to avoid the attack, but came at Altron again. Alex wasn't about to allow those dragon claws a chance, but allowed closer and closer calls with the double-sided, beam trident. Altron then lunged the double-sided, beam trident forward at the cockpit of BlitzWavine. BlitzWavine activated it left thrusters and dodged the attack by spinning to its right. BlitzWavine thrusted forward with its beam saber and knocked back the double-sided beam trident. Alex seized the opportunity; he had the beam saber slice through the right arm and to the upper part of the torso. The right arm fell off with the double-sided, beam trident, and the melted gundanium armor began to give way collapsing on Altron.  
  
"What Treize couldn't do years ago, this man has managed to do. I wished it had been Treize who defeated me." Wufei smiled as he said his final words. "Nataku, thank you for allowing me to fight with you, again."  
  
BlitzWavine forced the beam saber through the rest of the way, and melted armor flew off of Altron. BlitzWavine jetted back as Altron began to explode. Small explosions erupted in the area where the beam saber went through, and began to spread. The two halves of the mobile suit separated farther apart, and two explosions send shockwaves through the area.  
  
"Too close for comfort." Alex breathed a sigh of relief as his breathing rate went down.  
  
Heavyarms kai sent another wave of missiles toward the remaining dolls. The Virgos exploded in an almost massive unity, and then the shockwave of Altron's explosion hit Heavyarms kai. Trowa was shaken up in his cockpit.  
  
"What's happening?"  
  
Heavyarms kai looked in the direction where Altron was fighting, but saw a long, glowing, blue light and a round, glowing, yellow light.  
  
"Wufei, are you there? Do you copy? ... WUFEI!"  
  
Heavyarms kai flew toward the area where the explosion had come from. He saw Altron's right arm with deactivated, beam trident in hand fly by him. Trowa's anger erupted to new heights knowing a friend was killed practically on top of him. BlitzWavine detected Heavyarms kai's approach and charged at him, but Alex soon found out his mistake. Heavyarms kai pointed its galting gun at BlitzWavine and open fired. BlitzWavine was hit by the swarm of bullets, but was barely damaged; except when some of the bullets found their way to its joints. BlitzWavine moved to its left and barely dodged the rest of the hail of bullets. BlitzWavine activated its front thrusters and backed off from Heavyarms kai. Heavyarms kai's shoulder plates slid upwards and leg panels popped open to reveal the missiles stored inside. An aiming tool on Trowa's cockpit screen homed in on BlitzWavine's signature, and Trowa pushed a button to launch the missiles. The missiles traveled viciously toward BlitzWavine, some of them passed each other and came back to pass the other. BlitzWavine flew backward as it tried to avoid the missiles and thrusted to its left. The missiles passed BlitzWavine only to be corrected on the target area and curved to adjust to its movements. More missiles came at BlitzWavine from Heavyarms kai, so BlitzWavine maxed out its thrusters and flew toward the colony. It managed to confuse some of the missiles and destroyed themselves, but most of the missiles stayed on target. BlitzWavine hooked left and spiraled upwards in a desperate bid to get rid of the missiles. The move backfired, instead of following the spiral it had made, and the missiles went straight to it; BlitzWavine got nailed in the leg. The explosions knocked out part of the leg thrusters, but the legs were still able to hold the weight of the mobile suit.  
  
"This guy is good," Alex thought. His breathing rate went up. "If this continues, I won't being living much longer."  
  
BlitzWavine turned in the direction of Heavyarms kai and full throttled its remaining thrusters. BlitzWavine charged straight at Heavyarms kai, and Heavyarms kai was quick to react by firing its gatling gun at it. The bullets had little effect as BlitzWavine continued with the missiles behind it. At the last possible second, BlitzWavine shifted its weight upward and flew out of the path of the bullets and missiles. Trowa realized what Alex had done and ejected Heavyarms kai's red-hot gatling gun toward the missiles. The first missile hit the gatling gun and exploded; the missiles that followed it did the same thing, and saved Heavyarms kai from massive damage. Heavyarms kai thrusted backwards, and then Trowa came to the realization that the explosion was a diversion. Trowa had lost track of BlitzWavine and it would cost him. A yellow, glowing camera lens appeared behind Heavyarms kai, just as it appeared on Heavyarms kai's radar. BlitzWavine put its right hand on Heavyarms kai's shoulder and spun Heavyarms kai around. Trowa looked as BlitzWavine quickly ignited its beam saber and began to swing its blue beam saber forward.  
  
"I'm sorry Catherine. I won't be coming back this time around."  
  
The beam saber went through the cockpit; it melted away the cockpit like it was nothing in a mere second. BlitzWavine held the beam saber there for a few seconds, while Alex felt very relieved that the battle was over though it also felt he had killed someone who he might have known. He brushed away the thought. BlitzWavine forced the beam saber through the left side of Heavyarms kai and flew away. The cockpit exploded, and engulfed the rest of Heavyarms kai; then four additional explosions occurred and sent shrapnel in all directions. BlitzWavine was caught off guard and shrapnel hit its left arm, the left arm lost some of its functionality.  
  
"Damn it. I'll need to get it repaired."  
  
Deathscythe Hell arrived after encountered some Taurus mobile suits and found nothing, but a debris field of scrap metal. Duo thought nothing of it at first and this only proved that Trowa and Wufei were still in the area; until he remembered that Trowa and Wufei were supposed to be seen in the area. Duo opened a communication link to both, but didn't get a response from either. Duo tried again but had concern now, and still got no response. Duo was panicking now. He almost opened another communication link, but then he saw the head of Heavyarms kai float toward him. Deathscythe Hell flew towards it and identified what he feared and realized that the other set of debris must have belonged to Altron.  
  
"What happened here?" A cold sweat came over him as he knew the question was rhetorical.  
  
Duo began to cry for his comrades, and anger came over him; one that can only be satisfied by the blood of the enemy. BlitzWavine flew towards the colony, but spotted Deathscythe Hell on its radar. It headed toward Deathscythe Hell and stopped fifty meters away from Deathscythe Hell.  
  
Duo opened up a communication link to Alex. Alex saw that the pilot was very upset, but he didn't know why or who he was. The only thing was he swore he had seen him before; maybe this was the one named Duo that the prisoner had yelled out.  
  
"Why Alex?"  
  
"This one knows my name as well. Shit. How many of them knew I was in that prison?" Alex thought.  
  
"WHY DID IT HAVE TO COME TO THIS!" 


	10. Duo versus Alex

*Disclaimer* Gundam is copyrighted by Bandai Co. and what I use in here I don't legally own. It should not be used for profit and/or plot a graph of what happens during this fanfic.  
  
Chapter 10- Duo vs. Alex  
  
Duo's mind flooded with anger upon seeing the aftermath of Trowa and Wufei's demise. The only thing he could have even thought of was getting revenge for them and nothing else. His body quivered and Duo only managed to say "WHY DID IT HAVE TO COME TO THIS!" a second time.  
  
Deathscythe Hell hovered in space while it held out its beam scythe as though ready for an attack. BlitzWavine ignited its beam saber again and prepared to fight Deathscythe Hell. The colony was eerily dark in the background as the two mobile suits stood off in a showdown. The hesitation lasted for a few moments and allowed Alex to look over the damage BlitzWavine had sustained during the pervious battles. Alex pressed a single button and lights flickered on the screen. The lights eventually lit up the leg region of BlitzWavine.  
  
"My leg thrusters are out. Without their added boost, I can't possibly out speed and out maneuver this gundam. This isn't good."  
  
Duo calmed down enough to have spoken a little rationally.  
  
"I'm the God of Death. I'll will not let my comrades be let unavenged."  
  
"I don't care what you call yourself. You are my enemy now, and I'll defeat my enemies."  
  
With that, Deathscythe Hell charged at BlitzWavine at full speed. The gundam then took a power slash at BlitzWavine, but BlitzWavine activated its shoulder thrusters and spun out of the way. Deathscythe Hell's attack threw itself forward, almost to the point of being sent on a drift. Alex saw another opportunity knocking; BlitzWavine thrusted full speed at Deathscythe Hell and took a swipe at it. Deathscythe Hell's hand spun around the beam scythe and blocked the attack dead in its tracks. Deathscythe Hell turned its head toward BlitzWavine and the neon, green eyes flashed up; the beam scythe forced the beam saber off. Deathscythe Hell jetted up and brought a powerful swing of the beam scythe down upon BlitzWavine. BlitzWavine just barely dodged the attack by using its shoulder thrusters at full force.  
  
"How does this guy know how I'm going to move?" Alex panicked in his mind.  
  
Deathscythe Hell jetted right after BlitzWavine and began to raise the beam scythe for another attack. Alex anticipating this, BlitzWavine brought up its beam saber to counter. At the peak of the beam scythe's arch, Deathscythe Hell freed its left arm and pointed it at BlitzWavine. Alex looked awkwardly at Deathscythe Hell and glanced at the left arm just as the pincers of the buster shield opened.  
  
"That wasn't for decoration after all."  
  
BlitzWavine turned around while it activated all of its remaining thrusters. The buster shield's beam weapon activated and Deathscythe Hell fired it after BlitzWavine. The chase was on. BlitzWavine swerved to the left and the buster shield adjusted for it, while Deathscythe Hell kept good pace on both of them. Alex thought of several ways to stop the buster shield, but none came out for a victory. Beam saber was useless in this chase. To smash into it, meant death. To make the thing drill into the gundam would take a miracle. A very strange idea came to him, but he realized that it was possibly the only idea that could have even given him success if it was short. BlitzWavine unignited its beam saber and, while it placed the saber grip away, pulled out the gundanium sabre. The mobile suit turned upside down and reversed its thrusters; this brought BlitzWavine to a stop then a sudden boost toward the buster shield. The gundanium sabre struck its target with precision and knocked back the buster shield, except the shield forced upward and yanked the sabre out of BlitzWavine's hands. The sabre and buster shield drifted out of control in space, yet Deathscythe Hell came up and retrieved the buster shield while it left the gundanium sabre to drift in space. Alex switched the thrusters back and began to gain distance from Deathscythe Hell. BlitzWavine took a look back at Deathscythe Hell.  
  
"Risky, but worth it." Alex saw his sabre as it drifted in space. "Darn it, I wish that thing hadn't have been knocked it away. If I only could get it back... It's heading toward Orion, I'll recover it later then. For now though, I need to get to that colony."  
  
BlitzWavine continued on its course toward the colony, and only now did Duo realize what Alex wanted to do. The colony was the only place BlitzWavine could have retreated and have gotten excellent cover. Deathscythe Hell's thrusters maxed out as it tried to catch up to BlitzWavine before it could have gotten inside. Deathscythe Hell saw a closing docking bay entrance, but landed on top of the entrance without getting it. Duo was frustrated from BlitzWavine's escape to the entire battle in general. Deathscythe Hell put its beam scythe on the entrance. It then knelt down and began to pry the docking bay entrance open.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Two Leos wandered around the colony streets that have the look of being under construction. The buildings were in the final phases of being completed and lights have yet to be put into the colony streets and buildings.  
  
"I thought we were supposed to be supporting the attack on that battleship."  
  
"I know, but we have orders to find the construction crew and escort them out."  
  
"What if something happens though?"  
  
"Don't worry, the gundams and our buddies are handling everything outside. The enemy will concentrate on that battleship, anyway."  
  
The two Leos continued on their march when BlitzWavine appeared on top of a building behind them. The Leos' radar picked up BlitzWavine, and they turned around. BlitzWavine jumped off the building and headed toward them. It landed on the street and left a huge gash behind it, while the Leos opened fire on BlitzWavine with their Leo rifles. BlitzWavine reached them and got inside of their firing pattern.  
  
"Don't hurt yourselves."  
  
BlitzWavine grabbed an arm of both, and forced the Leos to point their rifles toward the other's cockpit. The guns continued to fire and riddled the cockpits with bullet holes. BlitzWavine let both go and the Leos collapsed to the ground. BlitzWavine reached down and grabbed both Leo rifles.  
  
" I told you not to hurt yourselves, but did you listen?"  
  
BlitzWavine began to walk forward then dashed behind a building for cover. Deathscythe Hell arrived in the area, and used a building as a landing pad. Duo gave a death glare when he saw the two Leos lying on the ground.  
  
"I know he is here." Duo thought. "Using the buildings as cover; smart, very smart, Alex."  
  
Suddenly, the building beneath Deathscythe Hell collapsed and sent Deathscythe Hell crashing into the ground. BlitzWavine appeared from concrete, dust smoke and opened fire with the Leo rifles. Deathscythe Hell got up and saw the bullets fly, but wasn't afraid at first. One of the camera screens went dark; Deathscythe Hell put up its right arm as a shield for its cameras. While Deathscythe Hell had its right arm up, its left arm rose up and pointed at BlitzWavine; the buster shield launched at BlitzWavine. BlitzWavine threw its Leo rifles at it and knocked the buster shield away into the ground. The buster shield then returned to Deathscythe Hell and BlitzWavine backed up a little. Deathscythe Hell let down its arm. The right, green camera eye of Deathscythe sparked off electricity from being hit by the bullets.  
  
"Your going down now."  
  
Deathscythe Hell pulled out its beam scythe and ignited it. Deathscythe Hell took a step forward and a communication link popped up in Duo's cockpit.  
  
A sixty-year-old man was on the other side of the link. "Duo Maxwell, one of the five sent to earth for Operation Meteor. I'm pleased to finally have a talk with you."  
  
"Who are you? Why are you interrupting this battle?" Duo snapped back annoyed.  
  
"My name is Renjio Ito, and I have contacted you to relay a message and give an offer to you."  
  
"What might that be?"  
  
Duo glanced over at BlitzWavine, but Alex's mobile suit didn't make a move.  
  
"The one you know as Hilde Schbeiker is currently aboard Battleship Orion as a humble guest."  
  
"Hilde.... Don't give me that, I know your holding her hostage."  
  
"You misunderstand me. I'm here only to bring joy back into your life." Ito said with extreme smoothness and Duo hesitated at his words. "I'm offering you a deal."  
  
"What do you mean by a deal?"  
  
"If you manage to destroy your opponent, I'll allow you into this battleship and escort her to you without any strings attached. You can then fly off, and be bothered by anyone again."  
  
"What if I don't?" Duo ground his teeth together at the offer.  
  
"She will be executed by the pilot who you failed to defeat."  
  
Duo had a look of despair on his face from what he heard from the final part of the deal.  
  
"Of course, I don't doubt your ability to kill him. Its just a necessary precaution to ensure that nothing goes wrong." A small smile came over his face. "I wish you luck for her sake." Ito chuckled as he closed the link down.  
  
His mind ran with idea of how good it would be to have avenged Wufei and Trowa while he got Hilde back, but at the same time Alex wasn't in his right mind. Which is more important though? Another thought came across his mind. "I bet that guy is behind everything up to this point. But, why would he want me to do such a thing to one of his men?"  
  
Duo came out of his thoughts and looked up for BlitzWavine. BlitzWavine was nowhere in sight, and Deathscythe Hell looked around deseparately for the suit. Deathscythe Hell turned around to find BlitzWavine was practically on top of it, and BlitzWavine's thrusters cranked up to full power. Deathscythe Hell was helplessly with what happened next as it was flung into a nearby building at full force, and BlitzWavine let go at the last moment. The building's foundation was rocked from the impact of the gundam, and the building gave way as it buried Deathscythe Hell. Duo was violently shaken up in his cockpit and passed out.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Duo woke up and saw nothing but a black void.  
  
"Duo."  
  
He turned in the direction of the voice and Trowa appeared.  
  
"Trowa. I thought you were killed."  
  
"Duo. Why didn't you help me out?"  
  
"I didn't know you were in that much trouble."  
  
Another voice spoke out, "That shouldn't have mattered."  
  
Duo looked to his left and saw Wufei. "Wufei."  
  
"Your sense of integrity is pathetic, and it got us killed."  
  
"I swear, I tried my best...."  
  
"Duo, why bother? We know you are useless as a gundam pilot." Trowa and Wufei said in unison while faded away.  
  
Duo ran over to where they had been and waved his arms around as he tried to find them. He got nothing.  
  
"You lost the battle." Heero appeared in front of Duo.  
  
"I didn't."  
  
"You also put me in my grave." Quatre in a wheelchair appeared next to Heero.  
  
"What are you guys talking about? Heero, you are still fighting that yellow mobile suit and Quatre is in the hospital."  
  
"Because of your failure, I was ganged up on by the mobile suit you were fighting. I couldn't win at any rate against them, so I activated the self-destruction device and took both of them with me."  
  
"That can't be, I'm still fighting that mobile suit."  
  
"So you think." Heero faded away.  
  
"Quatre...."  
  
"After the battle, the colony, I was on, was destroyed by the battleship Orion." Quatre started to fade away. "You couldn't even protect your friends."  
  
Duo tried to grab Quatre, but he faded away. Duo held back his tears as he tried to make sense of this void.  
  
"Duo."  
  
Duo turned around and saw Hilde running toward him. She had a space suit on, and looked like she was very happy to see him.  
  
"Hilde, I'm so glad to see you...."  
  
A shot rang out and Hilde collapsed into Duo's arms. He felt her back and saw blood on his hand. He looked up and saw Alex in his space suit pointing a gun at them.  
  
"Alex?"  
  
Alex faded away along with Hilde.  
  
Duo got up and watched as the blood evaporated from his hands. Duo looked around and saw Alex staring at him. He was in the same clothes he had wore the day before he and Quatre had gone off to the concert.  
  
"Hey Duo."  
  
"Alex... what happened to you?"  
  
"Nothing happened to me, I got these tickets in a contest I had apparently entered a few weeks ago. Though quite honestly, I don't remember entering a contest. I have an extra, you want to go with me?"  
  
"No way." Duo replied with anger. "Explain to me, why you killed Wufei and Trowa!"  
  
"Whoa, man. If you didn't want a ticket, you should have just said something. Accusing me of killing two gundam pilots, that's just outrageous."  
  
"It's true. I didn't see it, but I know you did it."  
  
"What's with the accusing manner all of the sudden? I know Quatre would love to see this group, anyway. I'm sorry, but I will have to leave you with that attitude of yours behind. I'll see you in a few days. I have a concert to go to."  
  
"No, Alex wait...." Alex faded away. "I remember that conversation now. Why didn't I go with him? No, it's not my fault."  
  
"I shouldn't have given you Deathscythe." Doctor G appeared behind Duo.  
  
Duo turned around and faced Doctor G. "What do you mean?"  
  
"You are pathetic compared to the others. You want attention a lot yet never get it. You are nothing but a child. Deathscythe was designed for grown ups, not children."  
  
"Don't you dare say that about me! I helped out with my share of things!"  
  
"Why do you react, if I'm so wrong?" Doctor G faded away.  
  
"I'm starting to hate this place. I wish I could go now." Duo mumbled.  
  
A hand appeared on Duo's shoulder. "I know how you are feeling Duo. This isn't an easy time for you, but please do what you think is right."  
  
Duo turned around and saw Hilde. "Hilde...."  
  
"Don't say another word." Hilde put her right hand on Duo's mouth. "Just listen. This is where your nightmares live and grow. It lurks in everyone, and when you get here; it's supposed to be the end. But, you can't stay here; otherwise your nightmares will become the nightmares of everyone. You don't have much time. Go."  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Duo woke up and saw rubble from the building had covered his cameras.  
  
BlitzWavine stood over the rubble as it looked for any signs that Deathscythe Hell was functional. There was nothing to indicate the gundam had survived the building's collapse. BlitzWavine started to walk away and the rubble started to rise up a little. BlitzWavine turned around to get one last look, and then the pile of rubble erupted like a volcano. Deathscythe Hell outstretched its wings in a show of terror, and its beam scythe ignited, shining through the cloud of falling debris. BlitzWavine ignited its beam saber in response to the new show of force.  
  
"This is it."  
  
Deathscythe Hell and BlitzWavine charged at each other, while Duo and Alex yelled at the top of their lungs.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Location: Battleship Orion  
  
One of the north docking bays  
  
Time: Thirty Minutes later  
  
BlitzWavine slowly drifted into the docking bay. Its left arm was completely gone, and when it landed the left leg joint gave out. This forced the crew of the docking bay to assist the mobile suit with cranes. The process takes several minutes, but finally BlitzWavine was docked in and ready for repairs. A crewmember opened the cockpit door to have found Alex gasped for air in his helmet.  
  
"Are you okay?"  
  
Alex glanced up at him and stopped gasping for air. "That pilot was harder than I thought. He almost got me."  
  
Alex pushed his feet against the seat and glided out of BlitzWavine's cockpit. He looked at the head for a second and saw electricity sparked out of the neck and the camera area.  
  
"We'll have it fixed in no time, sir." The crewmember saluted.  
  
"I want it done in twenty."  
  
Alex continued to glide toward a catwalk. He grabbed the rail and did a slide under the rail to gain a footing on the catwalk. Alex headed toward an airlock and went through it. On the other side, he met two men; one of them had a gun for him.  
  
"Ito wants you to execute the girl you helped bring in now."  
  
Alex nodded and then pulled up his window on his helmet. "Alright, but I wish he hadn't made me do this to someone who might have trusted me as a captor."  
  
The three of them walked down a long corridor that led to the prison block. Each step seemed like hours to Alex, but the trip only took two minutes. One of the men pressed a button and the cell door opened.  
  
"Lets do this." The two men walked in first. Alex followed shortly behind them.  
  
Hilde got up off of her bed. She stared right into Alex's eyes; they were still unsympathetic and cold to her. Alex raised his gun to her.  
  
"Alex. Please don't do this."  
  
"I'm sorry, Hilde. But, I have no choice in the matter. I wish there was another way."  
  
Alex pulled the trigger, and then pulled the trigger again a fraction of a second later. 


	11. The War Ends: Light Blooms

*Disclaimer* Gundam is copyrighted by Bandai Co. and what I use in here I don't legally own. It should not be used for profit and/or to remember that X does marks the spot.  
  
Chapter 11- The war ends: Light blooms  
  
The smoke from Alex's gun fumed upward and dispersed into the clean air around. Alex looked down the barrel of the gun and saw one of the two guards lying on the ground in a pool of blood. He looked over at the other guard and saw the guard up against the wall. The man spat out blood and whispered something under his lips. His hands held onto his stomach, and seemed to hope that the blood would stop flowing. Alex looked up and saw the trail of blood on the wall from when the guard had stood. He looked back down to and put his gun to the guard's head.  
  
"I'm sorry that I put you through that much pain. I meant for it to be quick." Alex whispered so that only the guard could here it.  
  
Alex pulled the trigger. A cloud of blood sprayed the wall and the guard slumped over. Alex got back up and looked at his suit, which was soaked in blood. He looked toward Hilde to find her staring at him like he was some sort of demon, and was prepared to run through the door. Alex slowly put his gun away while he stared back at her. He reached his hand out to Hilde.  
  
"You expect me to come with you after what you've done?" Hilde was extremely mad along being frightened out of her mind.  
  
"Hilde. Please come with me." Alex said in a sincere and caring manner. "Duo is waiting for you, and I'm here to begin fixing my mistakes."  
  
Hilde saw his eyes weren't the same when he had walked through the door, and grabbed his hand.  
  
"Let's go."  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
BlitzWavine and Deathscythe Hell charged at one another and their beam weapons clashed with the electricity that jolted everywhere. Deathscythe Hell thrusted backwards, and this made BlitzWavine off balance and it fell to the ground. Deathscythe Hell flew back and swiped low at BlitzWavine. BlitzWavine saw this just in time and activated its left shoulder thruster. It tumbled across the colony floor, and dodged Deathscythe Hell's attack. BlitzWavine crawled back to its feet though the left leg was having a hard time getting into place. BlitzWavine finally stood wielding its beam saber in its left hand. Deathscythe Hell looked at BlitzWavine for a moment and BlitzWavine began to walk toward his opponent.  
  
"I'm not giving up on you Alex, even if I have to kill you. You'll be better off than this pathetic excuse of a man."  
  
BlitzWavine's right leg took a step forward. The left leg joint area sprayed out oil, and tubes that carried the oil lashed around violently. The joint mechanism completely unglued and the left leg gave way, and this left BlitzWavine in a kneeling position for which there was no hope of winning. Alex looked over the suit's diagnostics and saw nothing that could have happened during his fight with Deathscythe Hell. He then remembered his fight with Trowa and the gatling gun.  
  
"The bullets from it hit the left leg joint.... In space, it didn't matter, but the centripetal force on this colony would have amplified the effects of the damage. That pilot has played me for a fool. If I didn't defeat him, he probably would have gone to this colony and done me in...." Alex cringed at the thought how far forward that pilot had thought.  
  
BlitzWavine tried to stand, but failed in every attempt. Deathscythe Hell stood still and watched as the mobile suit he had just fought on even terms was down for the count. Deathscythe Hell unignited its beam scythe and raised its left arm. BlitzWavine saw this and desperately tried to get up.  
  
"I'm sorry, Alex."  
  
Deathscythe Hell fired its buster shield at BlitzWavine. Alex could only look in horror as it approached, and then an idea came to his head. BlitzWavine thrusted to its right, but put up its arms in self-defense. The move worked, except the buster shield compensated for the movement and BlitzWavine's beam saber tried to block the attack. The beam saber melted away, and then exploded shredding the left arm. The buster shield continued through the left arm and took care what was left. Between the two explosions, BlitzWavine was tossed and crashed across the floor of the colony. The cockpit shook violently and Alex banged his head on the control board. His head laid on the control board once BlitzWavine came to a stop. Alex's eyes were wide open, but had a blank look. Deathscythe Hell looked over at the belly-laying BlitzWavine and ignited its beam scythe. It slowly walked up to BlitzWavine. For several moments, Alex didn't make a move, but a single tear left his right eye. He finally sat back up and had more tear running down his face.   
  
"Where am I?" Alex examined his head. "Why do I have a splitting headache?" He felt the tears that rolled down his face. "What am I crying for?"  
  
BlitzWavine flipped over onto its back and its cameras locked onto Deathscythe Hell that was about to deliver a deathblow.  
  
A communication link popped up in Deathscythe Hell's cockpit. "Stop! Duo! What the hell do you think your doing?"  
  
Duo was thrown for a second, but thought this might be a trick. "Finishing you off."  
  
"For what? I'm an ally of yours!"  
  
Duo looked again at Alex and saw his eyes. "Alex your back. I can't believe it. Its so good to see you."  
  
"Duo... you are acting like you've seen a ghost..." Alex began to regain his memory of the past few days and realized what he, in some sort of rage, had killed Trowa and Wufei. More tears came from Alex's eyes and this time he knew why. "What have I done...."  
  
"Don't worry about it.... Now, that you are back. I need your help with something."  
  
"What kind of help would you possibly need from me?"  
  
"It's Hilde. I need you to…."  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Alex pushed a button and the cell door shut. Hilde looked at him; still confusion flowed through her mind about what had happened. Alex turned around and put his hand on her shoulder.  
  
"We got to get going."  
  
Alex turned his head toward the hall and started to walk. Hilde followed hesitatively all from the fear of being caught by guards that wandered around the battleship. The corridor seemed to have kept going on forever in Hilde's mind, yet finally an office came up on their right. Alex walked in while Hilde stayed out of sight. After a few moments, Alex walked out carrying a space suit and handed it over to Hilde.  
  
"You'll need this to get into the docking area." Alex pointed down an adjacent hall. "There is a women's bathroom down there. You'll need to change in there."  
  
Alex escorted Hilde over to the women's bathroom, and he leaned up against the wall while Hilde went in. Alex pulled out his gun and looked at it with a stare of realization; that he had just killed someone cold-bloodedly and that he was no better than the next man in purity of morality. He gave a big sigh and put the gun away. A moment later, Hilde walked out of the bathroom wearing a space suit while she held a helmet to her side. Alex looked at her for a second then turned around to get back to the docking bay. Hilde put on her helmet while she followed Alex.  
  
"Alex, how did Duo get through to you?"  
  
"This is not the time for discussion. First priority is to get off this ship. Second is to get you a safe distance away from it. Then we can talk if you want."  
  
"Ok."  
  
The hallway again seemed to go on forever as Hilde walked down it, but a door stopped the everlasting walk. Alex gestured to Hilde to put down her visor as he put his down and she complied. Alex pushed a button that activated the airlock and they walked in. The first airlock door shut behind them and the second door opened to the docking bay. BlitzWavine was in sight with workers that tried to finish up the repairs that they could manage. Alex pushed off the ground and glided toward BlitzWavine with Hilde shortly behind him. Alex grabbed a hold of a rail and stopped to see a worker.  
  
"How are the repairs coming?"  
  
"The left leg joint has been fully repaired, though some oil was lost and have yet to fill that up. The cameras have been fixed to a degree, and we also have your gundanium sabre recovered. We haven't gotten a replacement for that arm though."  
  
"Excellent, I'm going back out then."  
  
"Wait. We should get the arm back on it and who is that?"  
  
Hilde grabbed a hold of the rail Alex is on.  
  
"Oh her... She's a rookie that I promised to show how an advanced mobile suit handled."  
  
"Who gave you permission to do that?"  
  
"Ito. If you want to argue, talk to him."  
  
"That won't be necessary, sir." The worker glided away in fear.  
  
Alex pushed off the rail toward BlitzWavine and Hilde followed closely behind him. Alex stopped at the cockpit door and had Hilde go in first.  
  
"Trying to be a gentleman, are we?"  
  
"No. More like a dog on watch."  
  
He turned around to see if anyone had figured out anything. The same worker, which Alex had talked to a few moments ago, looked up at Alex and finally saw the blood stained space suit Alex had been wearing.  
  
"He must have shot that girl in one of her arteries or something to produce that much blood..." The worker thought about the girl that was just with Alex. "Unless..."  
  
The worker landed on the walkway and frantically ran toward the nearest videophone. He had gotten to one, but he saw his own blood come out of his chest. The worker turned around to see where the shot came from and saw Alex holding a gun. The worker spat out some blood and floated in the low gravity. The other maintenance crew ditched the area after their co-worker got blown away. Alex forced himself into the cockpit and the door shut behind him.  
  
The officers in the control room to the docking bay watched in horror as this went on. They activated an alarm that alerted the entire battleship. Upon hearing this, Alex mumbled something under his breath and saw the restraints on his suit were still in place. BlitzWavine began to push off the wall to put a lot of strain on the restraints. The right arm flung forward which allowed BlitzWavine to grab a walkway and crushed it while pulling it down. Two Virgo dolls flew into the docking bay for maintenance and spotted BlitzWavine struggling. The cameras flashed and the Virgos raised their beam cannons. Alex had enough now, all of BlitzWavine's remaining thrusters cranked up to full power and the restraints snapped off like twigs. The Virgos fired their beam cannons at BlitzWavine, but it flew up and grabbed its gundanium sabre from the salvage unit. Explosions ensued from the beams of energy on the wall of the docking bay. The Virgos fired at BlitzWavine as they tried to lead the mobile suit this time, but BlitzWavine rolled to the right and the beams of energy crashed into the control room; this killed everyone in the control room instantly. BlitzWavine jetted up to the first Virgo and impaled it, and forced the sabre through the rest of the Virgo while the movement sliced in half the second Virgo. The two Virgos exploded, and BlitzWavine flew through the smoke and made it outside of the battleship. BlitzWavine was headed toward the east side of the battleship when a squad of Taurus began their attack on it.  
  
"I don't have time for this..." Hilde had thus far watched the entire fight from behind Alex's seat, but she could only watch at they sped toward the first Taurus.  
  
A pair of green eyes appeared behind the Taurus they were about to attack. For a second, nothing happened, but in a few blurs of green neon light the Taurus mobile suits were destroyed.  
  
"Well, What do you know? Duo has arrived. Aren't you a little early?"  
  
"I know I am. The plan worked thus far?" Duo saw Hilde behind the Alex's seat. "Forget about that question."  
  
"Let's continue on then."  
  
Deathscythe Hell appeared from in view of BlitzWavine and both cockpits opened up. Alex and Duo stepped out and stood on their doors. Duo nodded his head and Alex headed back into the cockpit. Hilde came from the cockpit and she glided over to Deathscythe Hell. Hilde got into Deathscythe Hell with Duo, and the cockpit door shuts; BlitzWavine's cockpit shuts as well.  
  
"Duo. The plan has been completed in full. I'm heading over to defeat Toteis."  
  
"The what?"  
  
"That's the name of the yellow mobile suit. My brother is inside of it."  
  
"A brother?"  
  
"Yeah, Alex apparently has a blood brother, though he never fully explained it to me." Hilde had jumped into the conversation.  
  
"Yeah. That's for another time."  
  
"First, I have to confront him. I don't want to, but I have to."  
  
"Before you go, what's the name of the mobile suit you are in?"  
  
"This mobile suit is called BlitzWavine. Get out of here with Hilde, and I'll force Heero to go with ya. As for me…."  
  
"Don't say anything. I understand. "  
  
Deathscythe Hell jetted off toward the south end of the battleship and BlitzWavine hovered there for a few moments. Alex wanted to collect his thoughts before he headed off, but something seemed a bit odd. Horrifyingly, cold sweat came down his face and began to lose the feeling in his eyes. His breath became short and began to cough to the point of hacking. Alex pounded his chest and regained most of his control over his breath. He began to feel his eyes again as well.  
  
"What's wrong with me..."  
  
A communication link opened up in his cockpit with Ito on the other side.  
  
"Ito..."  
  
"Alex, so you've finally gained back your memory I take it? It's a shame that our best efforts failed to keep you under our control."  
  
"What are you talking about … what did you do to me!"  
  
"Consider it a training of the mind to come under control of our authority."  
  
"You think I'm that naive..."  
  
"Well, it doesn't affect normal people, only those we had designed for a special purpose."  
  
Alex raised an eyebrow. "A genetically altered human…"  
  
"That is correct. We called that project, Project Stark Oak. It would have accompanied Operation Meteor in taking over the world. This project was designed to make soldiers stronger in mind and fight with no remorse. In other words, the perfect soldier."  
  
"You mean…"  
  
"You're one of our assets for the project. In fact, you were our one of our best candidates for the project, though I must say that your birth was an oddity even for test tube babies. We would have sent you along with others, except things didn't quite go as planned."  
  
"Meaning..."  
  
"The one you knew as Rio Cros interfered with our plans, by destroying one of our facilities and killed hundreds of embryos along with twenty children. He had disappeared shortly afterward, but we didn't know you were with him. We hunted him down, yet couldn't find him and had to scrap the project from lack of interest from the Barton Foundation."  
  
"Yeah right. Rio wouldn't do that at all... You're lying."  
  
"Believe what you want. I don't care either way, since you are expendable now. First though, my forces will crush the one so-called perfect soldier. Heero Yuy." Ito smirked and the communication link died.  
  
Alex looked around to see where Wing Zero could have been located, and noticed that the battleship was in a different position than it had been at the beginning of the battle.  
  
"My God.... They are going to vaporize Wing Zero...."  
  
BlitzWavine blasted off toward the general area where Duo said he had left Wing Zero and Toteis fighting.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Wing Zero clashed its beam saber with Toteis' beam saber at high speed and both mobile suits flew back. Wing Zero arched toward its right to compensate for Toteis' change in direction. Both of them charged at each other; clashed and backed off for a renewed attack. This has been the battle for the entire time that Deathscythe Hell had left Wing Zero alone, except the battleship had been maneuvering for its main cannon to work against Wing Zero. Heero noticed the move, and continued to keep the main cannon from being able to fire its shot. Deathscythe Hell flew by along the battleship's surface, and saw the battle going on. Duo knew he couldn't do anything and continued on. That is until he saw BlitzWavine charging at the two from a distance. Duo opened a communication link to Heero.  
  
"Hey Heero."  
  
"What is it Duo... and why aren't you fighting that black mobile suit."  
  
"Heads up, BlitzWavine is on our side now; don't attack him. Alex will be assisting us from here on out."  
  
Heero gave his typical death stare. "Okay, but I'm going to have a talk with him after this along with Wufei and Trowa."  
  
"Sure... Heero..."  
  
Duo didn't let Heero see his eyes after his last statement by closing the communication link.  
  
"Duo. Why didn't you tell him?"  
  
"He would kill Alex on the spot if he found out."  
  
"Good point."  
  
"I'll talk to him about it once the battle is over, and before he has a talk with Alex. For Alex's sake."  
  
BlitzWavine flew toward the Wing Zero and Toteis battle. Alex saw that Wing Zero had no trouble fighting Toteis, but was worried about the battleship's main cannon.  
  
He opened a communication link to Heero.  
  
"Heero. Um… Do you know that the battleship is about to fire it main cannon at you?"  
  
"Affirmative."  
  
"That's right... I forgot that mobile suits could easily dodge the attack, except... the colonies can't..."  
  
"I know that. I plan on taking out that battleship's main cannon once this mobile suit is defeated."  
  
"We don't have time for this... We honestly don't!"  
  
Niou saw BlitzWavine's approach and was thrilled that his brother had come to join the fight. He thought that all of the gundams had been defeated, and only Wing Zero was left. The plan in his mind was working out, but he didn't pick up on Deathscythe Hell that had traveled against the battleship.  
  
Wing Zero flew back after it clashed with Toteis again, but this time something smashed Wing Zero's head back. When Wing Zero's cameras came back into focus, Heero saw BlitzWavine in a position with its right arm down. BlitzWavine pulled out its gundanium sabre and hovered itself between Toteis and Wing Zero.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
The main control center on the battleship was buzzing with activity as the battle continued on. People ran around giving orders to the dolls and to the men repairing malfunctions. Ito sat calmly through the chaos, and watched Toteis, BlitzWavine, and Wing Zero stand off. He smiled in delight.  
  
"Tell me. When will the main cannon be at full power?"  
  
"Any moment, sir."   
  
"Make it quicker, those mobile suits won't just be sitting there for long."  
  
"But sir, Niou is there as well."  
  
"I know he is, but he also knows the dangers. Just do it!"  
  
The crew scrambled even faster now. Ito turned his chair away from the main screen and turned on a videophone with a static filled face on the other side.  
  
"You know that we are about to crush the gundam known as Wing Zero. Having Alpha Company travel here was a waste of time and effort. You can have them turn back now."  
  
"Has the gundam's destruction been confirmed?" A voice seemed to almost murmur over the link.  
  
"No, it hasn't."  
  
"Ito, Alpha Company will continue to travel there then. Another thing, is 235 under our control still?"  
  
"He isn't."  
  
"What!"  
  
"He regained his memory."  
  
"Damn it. Tell me that he is dead then."  
  
"I'm about to wipe him out along with Wing Zero."  
  
"Ito, you idiot. As long as he lives, there is no telling what might happen."  
  
"Eizo, please understand. I'm in control of this operation. He will die a painful death. Besides, he can't do anything to this battleship. The Virgos would eat him alive."  
  
"Anything happen with Camar in him?"  
  
"Camar had little effect on him."  
  
"Let's just hope that you can kill him quickly, then; for both our sakes. Eizo over and out."  
  
The video link died.  
  
"Me an idiot? I'll show him."  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
"I'm sorry Heero," Alex said to Heero. "But I won't allow a colony to go up in smoke."  
  
BlitzWavine turned around and looked directly at Toteis.   
  
"Alex, it's good to have you here. I was starting to wear a little bit out." Niou breathed at an irregular rate but nothing else seemed to be wrong.  
  
"Niou, my brother. I know you have been treating me well the past several months. We got along, and fought together. Under better circumstances, we might have been unbreakable and could have grown into a family." Alex paused with a tear that ran down his eye.  
  
"Don't tell me Ito wants you dead, now. I'll kill the bastard if he said anything close to that."  
  
"Unfortunately, I remember everything that happened. Please forgive me, for what I must do."  
  
"What do you talking about?" Niou saw his brother in tears, and couldn't help but stare.  
  
BlitzWavine charged at Toteis, and partially caught Niou off-guard. Toteis braced for impact by as it held out its beam saber to stop the gundanium sabre, but BlitzWavine moved its sabre to the right, which allowed the beam saber to plunge into its left shoulder. Niou was taken back by this move, but then realized why Alex had done it. BlitzWavine stabbed its gundanium sabre through the upper torso area of Toteis, which disabled the right arm of Toteis and most of its thrusters. The beam saber unignited and the melted armor of BlitzWavine fused with the saber grip. Niou regretted letting his guard down, and he knew is at the mercy of Alex.  
  
"Those pilots got to him. Damn it, Alex. Why couldn't you have stayed the same!"  
  
Wing Zero looked on as BlitzWavine's action and flew back to avoid further interference. Deathscythe Hell arrived back to the battle to find Wing Zero having backed off and BlitzWavine with Toteis in an odd position to human eyes.  
  
"What's happening?"  
  
"A fool-hearty move. An honorable one at that."  
  
"What do you mean?"  
  
"You'll see."  
  
"What!" Hilde and Duo said in unison.  
  
BlitzWavine began to reposition itself so that its head is underneath Toteis' chest and began to warm up its thrusters.  
  
"Alex I beg of you, don't do whatever you are about to do."  
  
"I'm again sorry."  
  
BlitzWavine's thrusters went to full power and they cranked BlitzWavine's speed to an unstable maximum. BlitzWavine's head was crushed under the weight of Toteis and debris fell off of the front of BlitzWavine. The communication link scrambled up on Alex's side.  
  
"You're insane!"  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Ito looked in horror as BlitzWavine charged at full blast with Toteis being dragged along in front of it.  
  
"500 meters..."  
  
"Fire now!"  
  
"Sir, we can't. The power hasn't gotten to full yet..."  
  
"400 meters..."  
  
"I said fire now..."  
  
"We'll almost there..."  
  
"300 meters..."  
  
"Fire! Damn it! Fire!"  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
BlitzWavine continued on with Toteis in front of it. Within two hundred meters of their approach, a glow of blue formed at the base of the main cannon. BlitzWavine went on until it reaches the one hundred meter mark. BlitzWavine began to glow red in all of its joints, and the rest of the mobile suit glowed orange.  
  
"He is sending me to my death… along with himself. I've killed my brother after all."  
  
BlitzWavine exploded, which sent shockwaves through space, but more than doubled the speed at which Toteis was dragged. Toteis sped uncontrollably toward the main cannon of Orion.  
  
"I'll see you again. Brother…"  
  
Toteis disappeared into the main chamber of Orion's main cannon, and an explosion erupted out of it. The next few moments seem very calm and tranquil as the two explosions settled down with a debris field having being formed. A blue beam of energy shot out of the east of the battleship, then three more beams of energy blasted out of the batteship on the remaining directions of the battleship. Orion began to sway towards the colony, while small explosions appeared on the surface of the battleship. The explosions subsided, and then the outer ring of Orion exploded. The huge explosion continued on toward the center of the battleship as it ripped apart the armor like it was nothing. The explosion reached the center of Orion and engulfed the main cannon, and another explosion erupted, which formed a pillar on both sides of the main explosion.  
  
Deathscythe Hell and Wing Zero just watched as the carnage unfolded. There was mystifying feeling about the explosion, and another moment later. Half of the original Leo forces came to them; apparently they fought off their attackers successfully. Hardly a thing was left of the battleship, except a few blips on the radar of both gundams. 


	12. Just another day

**Disclaimer**  
  
I pity the foo' that thinks he can use the Gundam name for profit for anything. The Bandai Co. owns it foo'. This is Mr. T saying "I pity the foo' that think he can break my chain." Also the writer got sick of doing these things himself so he sent me. Now for the fun.  
  
*Smashes dude over head* That's for a little boy named Joey.  
  
*Bashes another dude* What you say foo'?  
  
Ah... enough Mr. T. I'm fine. Anyway... sorry for the interruption. Enjoy the reading... hold on... ah!  
  
Chapter 12- Just another day  
  
Date: 21, 12, AC-198  
  
Time: 1:00PM  
  
Location: Preventor Headquarters  
  
Duo and Heero walked out of the front entrance, and walked down the street.  
  
"Man talk about a debriefing.... We're stuck in that place for two days."  
  
"I know."  
  
"I hope Quatre gets out of the hospital soon."  
  
"Me too."  
  
"One thing though, why didn't you … um… you know?"  
  
"None of your concern."  
  
"I was asking that…" Duo sighed.  
  
They came to a cafe and go in. Waiter showed them to their place, and got their orders. The waiter went away, and a few minutes later the waiter served them.  
  
"Well, the past several months will be erased from history." Duo slurped up some soda.  
  
"Yep." Heero began on a salad.  
  
"Trowa and Wufei are officially helping out the terraforming operation. I can't believe they would write that though, the people deserve to know."  
  
"Sometimes the truth isn't worth knowing. Sometimes"  
  
"I guess it's a good thing they decided what to do with the actions of Alex. They will simply say he never existed."  
  
Heero paused and looks up. "I guess so."  
  
"I won't get through to you will I?"  
  
"Not a chance."  
  
A man wearing a green hat, dark blue sunglasses, brown jacket with a red shirt underneath, and blue jeans on walked to an adjacent table and sat down. Another waiter took his order and walked away. This man then got up and walked over to Duo and Heero. He crouched down and put his hands on the table.  
  
"You guys didn't have to do that for me."  
  
"What do you mean?" Duo replies.  
  
"Lie in front of the administrators of the Preventors."  
  
"We didn't lie. We let them know only what they needed to know."  
  
The man has a smile on his face. "Thanks for giving me a second chance."  
  
"Second chances are hard to come by." Heero added. "Don't blow it."  
  
"I'll remember that. See ya around."  
  
The man began to walk away, but Duo got up.  
  
"Hilde wanted you to have this." Duo tosses over a pendent.  
  
The man caught it and put it around his neck. He saw it had the archangel Michael on it, and he looked at it puzzled for a moment then put it away. He walked away from the cafe and disappeared into the crowded street.  
  
Duo sat back down and looked at Heero.  
  
"How long before they catch onto our deception?"  
  
"I give it about eight months." Heero took a bite out of some French bread.  
  
"What about him holding that job?"  
  
"Five months at max."  
  
"Great, so you think we'll be seeing him again?"  
  
"Yep." 


End file.
